Tôi ngồi bên Lan.

I

Breakdown of Tôi ngồi bên Lan.

• Lan: Lan
• ngồi: to sit
• bên: beside; next to

Questions & Answers about Tôi ngồi bên Lan.

What does tôi mean, and is it always the right word for I?

Tôi means I / me, but Vietnamese pronouns depend a lot on age, relationship, and social context.

• tôi is a neutral, polite, and fairly safe way to say I
• it is common in careful speech, formal situations, or textbook examples
• in real life, people often use other pronouns based on who they are talking to

So Tôi ngồi bên Lan is completely correct, especially as a neutral learning sentence.

What does ngồi mean here?

Ngồi means to sit or to be sitting.

Vietnamese verbs do not change form the way English verbs do, so ngồi can cover several English ideas depending on context:

• sit
• am sitting
• sit regularly

Here it simply expresses the action/state of sitting.

Why is there no word for am in the sentence?