Tôi sẽ đến muộn một chút.

I will arrive a little late.

Breakdown of Tôi sẽ đến muộn một chút.

• tôi: I
• sẽ: will
• đến muộn một chút: to arrive a little late

Questions & Answers about Tôi sẽ đến muộn một chút.

Why is sẽ used here?

Sẽ is the common Vietnamese marker for a future action. In Tôi sẽ đến muộn một chút, it tells you that the lateness is in the future: the speaker is saying they will be late.

A few useful points:

• sẽ often corresponds to English will
• Vietnamese does not have verb endings for tense, so words like sẽ help show time
• In everyday speech, sẽ can sometimes be omitted if the future meaning is already clear from context

So:

• Tôi sẽ đến muộn một chút = I will arrive/be a little late
• Tôi đến muộn một chút can also be understood as future in the right context, but sẽ makes it explicit

What exactly is the role of đến in this sentence?

Đến means to arrive, to come, or to get to a place, depending on context.

In this sentence, đến muộn literally means something like arrive late. Vietnamese often uses this kind of structure:

• đến = arrive/come
• muộn = late

So đến muộn is a very natural way to say be late in the sense of arriving late.

Why is it đến muộn, not muộn đến?

Vietnamese word order here is different from English. The normal order is: