Learn Hardcore Vietnamese: Hay là tối mai?

Breakdown of Hay là tối mai?

Elon.io is an online learning platform

We have an entire course teaching Vietnamese grammar and vocabulary.

What does hay là mean in this sentence?

In this kind of sentence, hay là is a very common way to make a suggestion or propose an alternative.

It often corresponds to English expressions like:

So here, hay là is not just a plain dictionary or. It has a conversational feel: the speaker is offering an idea for consideration.

Is Hay là tối mai? a complete sentence? It feels incomplete to me.

Yes, it is completely natural in Vietnamese conversation, even though it may feel incomplete from an English point of view.

Vietnamese often leaves out words that are obvious from context. A fuller version might be something like:

In everyday speech, if everyone already knows what is being discussed, the speaker can shorten it to just Hay là tối mai?

So the omitted idea might be:

The exact missing words come from context.

Why is it tối mai and not mai tối?