Hành, tỏi, dầu ăn và muối ở đây.

Vietnamese often leaves out the verb to be when talking about location.

So Hành, tỏi, dầu ăn và muối ở đây literally looks like:

onion/green onion, garlic, cooking oil, and salt here

But the natural English meaning is The onions, garlic, cooking oil, and salt are here.

This is very normal in Vietnamese. For location, Vietnamese usually uses ở plus a place, and you do not add a separate word for is/are the way English does.

Compare:

• Sách ở đây. = The book is here.
• Tôi ở nhà. = I am at home.

So in this sentence, nothing is missing.

Ở đây means here or more literally at here / in this place.

• ở = at, in, located at
• đây = here, this place

Together, ở đây is a very common way to say that something is in the current location.

So:

• muối ở đây = the salt is here
• mọi người ở đây = people are here

In many cases, English just says here, but Vietnamese often uses the full expression ở đây.

Because that is the normal way to join items in a list.

In Vietnamese, you usually separate earlier items with commas, and then put và before the final item, just like English uses and:

• hành, tỏi, dầu ăn và muối
• onions, garlic, cooking oil, and salt

You do not normally repeat và between every item.

Usually not.

Vietnamese nouns often stay the same whether they are singular or plural. So hành, tỏi, and muối can mean either singular or plural depending on context.

That means:

• hành could mean onion, onions, scallion, scallions, or similar, depending on context
• tỏi could mean garlic or garlic cloves/bulbs depending on what is meant
• muối can mean salt in a general uncountable sense

If Vietnamese needs to be more specific, it can add numbers, classifiers, or quantity words. But in this sentence, the nouns are just given in a general list.

Hành is a slightly tricky word because its exact English translation depends on context.

It can refer to things in the onion family, often:

• onion
• green onion / scallion
• shallot

In cooking contexts, the intended meaning is usually clear from the situation. If the meaning shown to you says onion or scallion, follow that context.

So a learner should know that hành is a broad everyday food word, and the best English translation can vary.

Dầu ăn literally means eating oil or oil for cooking.

• dầu = oil
• ăn = eat

But in natural English, the best translation is usually cooking oil or edible oil.

This is a common noun phrase in Vietnamese. It is not a full sentence; it is just the name of the ingredient.

It is natural, but it can sound a little context-dependent.

Hành, tỏi, dầu ăn và muối ở đây works well if someone is indicating where those items are, for example:

• in a kitchen
• on a shelf
• in a recipe video
• while organizing groceries

It can feel slightly elliptical, because Vietnamese often omits words that are obvious from context.

A fuller version could be:

• Hành, tỏi, dầu ăn và muối đều ở đây. = The onions, garlic, cooking oil, and salt are all here.
• Ở đây có hành, tỏi, dầu ăn và muối. = Here there are onions, garlic, cooking oil, and salt.

So the original sentence is fine, especially in speech or practical situations.

The difference is mainly in focus.

Hành, tỏi, dầu ăn và muối ở đây focuses on those specific items and says they are here.

Ở đây có hành, tỏi, dầu ăn và muối focuses more on what is available in this place: Here, there are onions, garlic, cooking oil, and salt.

A simple way to feel the difference:

• X ở đây = X is here
• Ở đây có X = There is/are X here

Both are natural, but they are used in slightly different situations.

The tones matter a lot in Vietnamese. Here is a rough guide:

• hành — low/falling tone with a breathy quality in Southern speech; written with huyền
• tỏi — dipping/rising tone; written with hỏi
• dầu — rising tone? Actually dầu has huyền, so it is low/falling
• ăn — level tone, short vowel
• và — low/falling tone
• muối — rising tone; written with sắc
• ở — tone with a creaky rising quality; written with ngã
• đây — level tone

If you are a beginner, the most important thing is to notice that the tone marks are not optional spelling details. They are part of the word itself. For example, changing the tone can create a different word or make you hard to understand.

You usually would not in this sentence unless you had a special reason.

This sentence is just naming ingredients in a general way, so bare nouns are the most natural choice:

• hành, tỏi, dầu ăn và muối

You might add quantity words if needed:

• một ít muối = a little salt
• một chai dầu ăn = a bottle of cooking oil
• vài củ hành = a few onions/shallots

But with a plain list of ingredients or items, Vietnamese very often uses just the nouns without classifiers.