Sau giờ học, chị tôi sẽ đón em ở trường.

Literally:

• sau = after
• giờ học = study/class time, lesson time, school period

So sau giờ học means after class or after school hours, depending on context.

In natural English, the best translation may be after class or after school, but Vietnamese often expresses this idea with sau + time expression.

Vietnamese does not use articles like a, an, or the the way English does.

So giờ học can mean:

• class time
• the class period
• school time

The exact meaning comes from context, not from an article. This is very normal in Vietnamese.

Both are possible, but chị tôi is much more natural here.

• chị tôi = my older sister
• chị của tôi = my older sister, but more explicit or formal

With close family relationships, Vietnamese usually prefers the simpler pattern:

• mẹ tôi = my mother
• anh tôi = my older brother
• chị tôi = my older sister

Using của is not wrong, but it often sounds more formal, heavier, or more emphatic than needed.

Yes, in this sentence chị means older sister.

More specifically:

• chị = older sister / older female relative / older female person
• it implies she is older than the reference person

Vietnamese family words are very important and very precise about age and relationship. So chị is not just sister in a general sense. It tells you she is the older sister.

A younger sister would usually be em gái or simply em if the context is clear.

sẽ is a future marker. It often corresponds to English will.

So:

• chị tôi đón em ở trường = my older sister picks up / is picking up / picks up younger sibling at school, depending on context
• chị tôi sẽ đón em ở trường = my older sister will pick up younger sibling at school

That said, Vietnamese does not always need a future marker if the time is already clear. Because sau giờ học already points to a future time, a speaker might sometimes omit sẽ in conversation. But including sẽ makes the future meaning very clear.

Here đón means to go meet someone and pick them up.

It is used when someone goes to a place to receive another person and usually bring them somewhere afterward.

So in this sentence, đón em ở trường means something like:

• meet em at school
• pick em up at school

This is different from some related verbs:

• đưa = take/bring someone somewhere
• rước = pick up, often more formal, old-fashioned, or used in set expressions
• đón = go receive/pick up

So đón is the most natural everyday verb here.

This is one of the most important Vietnamese pronoun questions.

Em can mean different things depending on the relationship:

• a younger sibling
• a younger person
• I/me when the speaker is younger than the person they are talking to
• you when speaking to someone younger

In this sentence, em is most naturally understood as a younger sibling or the younger person being picked up.

If the sentence appears by itself, em can be ambiguous. Vietnamese often relies on context to tell you exactly who em is.

So a learner should not expect em to always equal one fixed English pronoun.

Because Vietnamese commonly uses kinship terms as pronouns.

Instead of a simple system like I / you / he / she, Vietnamese often chooses words based on:

• age
• family relationship
• social relationship
• politeness
• relative status

So chị and em are not just vocabulary words for relatives. They are also part of the pronoun system.

That is why a sentence like this may feel unusual to English speakers at first. Vietnamese is being very specific about the relationship between the people involved.

Ở marks location here, so ở trường means at school.

• ở = at/in
• trường = school

So đón em ở trường means pick em up at school.

This focuses on the place where the pickup happens.

A learner might expect something closer to English from school, but Vietnamese often uses the location directly with ở when talking about where the action takes place.

Putting a time phrase at the beginning is very common in Vietnamese.

It sets the scene first:

• Sau giờ học, chị tôi sẽ đón em ở trường.

This is similar to English sentences like:

• After class, my older sister will pick me up at school.

Vietnamese also allows other word orders in many cases, for example:

• Chị tôi sẽ đón em ở trường sau giờ học.

That also works, though beginning with the time phrase is very natural.

The comma is helpful, but not always absolutely necessary.

It marks Sau giờ học as an introductory time phrase. In writing, this makes the sentence easier to read:

• Sau giờ học, chị tôi sẽ đón em ở trường.

In casual writing, some people might leave it out:

• Sau giờ học chị tôi sẽ đón em ở trường.

Both are understandable, but the version with the comma is cleaner and more standard.

Yes, in the right context, that is possible.

Vietnamese often omits words that are already understood from context. So if everyone already knows whose older sister is being discussed, a speaker may say:

• Sau giờ học, chị sẽ đón em ở trường.

But without context, that could sound less clear, because chị might then be interpreted as a pronoun meaning you or older sister, depending on the situation.

So chị tôi is clearer for learners and clearer in an isolated sentence.

A useful breakdown is:

• Sau giờ học = time
• chị tôi = subject
• sẽ = future marker
• đón = verb
• em = object
• ở trường = location

So the structure is basically:

Time + Subject + Future marker + Verb + Object + Location

That is a very common Vietnamese sentence pattern, and it is a good model to remember.