Sách ở trong ngăn kéo.

A word-by-word breakdown is:

• Sách = book / books
• ở = to be located at / in / on
• trong = inside
• ngăn kéo = drawer

So the sentence literally works like:

Book(s) located inside drawer.

In natural English, that becomes The book is in the drawer or Books are in the drawer, depending on context.

Vietnamese often uses a very straightforward order:

thing + location word + place

So here:

• Sách = the thing
• ở trong = located in / inside
• ngăn kéo = the place

That gives:

Sách ở trong ngăn kéo = The book is in the drawer

This is similar to English The book is in the drawer, except Vietnamese does not need is in the same way English does.

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

So sách can mean:

• a book
• the book
• books
• the books

The exact meaning depends on context.

If you need to be more specific, Vietnamese can add other words, for example:

• một cuốn sách = a book
• cuốn sách đó = that book
• cuốn sách này = this book

But in many everyday sentences, Vietnamese leaves this unspecified.

By itself, sách does not clearly mark singular or plural.

So Sách ở trong ngăn kéo could mean:

• The book is in the drawer
• Books are in the drawer

Usually, context tells you which one is intended.

If you want to make it clearer, you can say:

• một cuốn sách = one book / a book
• những cuốn sách = books
• các cuốn sách = the books / books

Yes, in many situations you can say:

• Sách trong ngăn kéo
• Sách ở ngăn kéo
• Sách ở trong ngăn kéo

But they are not all exactly the same in feel.

• ở trong strongly shows location inside
• trong means in / inside
• ở marks location more generally

Sách ở trong ngăn kéo sounds very natural and clear: The book is inside the drawer.

If you say Sách trong ngăn kéo, it can sound a little more like The book in the drawer unless the context makes it clearly a full sentence. In speech, though, it is still often understood as The book is in the drawer.

Ngăn kéo means drawer.

Historically, the parts are:

• ngăn = compartment / section
• kéo = pull

So the idea is something like a pull-out compartment.

But as a learner, the important thing is simply:

ngăn kéo = drawer

It is a fixed everyday noun.

Because là is not normally used for location sentences like this.

Vietnamese uses là mainly to connect nouns or identify something, for example:

• Đây là sách của tôi. = This is my book.
• Anh ấy là giáo viên. = He is a teacher.

But for location, Vietnamese usually uses ở:

• Sách ở trong ngăn kéo. = The book is in the drawer.

So Sách là ở trong ngăn kéo is not the normal way to say it.

Yes, absolutely.

Cuốn is a classifier commonly used for books.

So:

• Sách ở trong ngăn kéo = more general, less specific
• Cuốn sách ở trong ngăn kéo = The book is in the drawer, with a more noun-like, natural singular feel

In many cases, Vietnamese omits the classifier when speaking generally. But when a noun phrase is more specific, classifiers are often used:

• một cuốn sách = a book
• cuốn sách này = this book
• cuốn sách đó = that book

Yes, it is a complete and natural sentence.

Vietnamese does not always need a separate verb like English is. Here, ở handles the idea of being located somewhere.

So even though it may look short to an English speaker, it is grammatically complete.

Yes. Both are natural, but they focus on different things.

• Sách ở trong ngăn kéo. = The book/books are in the drawer.
  • Focuses on the book(s)
• Trong ngăn kéo có sách. = There is/are book(s) in the drawer.
  • Focuses on what is in the drawer

So the first is more like answering Where is the book?
The second is more like answering What is in the drawer?

A simple learner-friendly guide:

• ngăn: starts with ng as in the end of English sing, but in Vietnamese it can begin a word
• kéo: roughly like keo with a rising tone

Tone-wise:

• ngăn has a level tone
• kéo has a rising tone

If pronunciation is difficult, the biggest challenge for English speakers is usually the initial ng sound at the start of ngăn. Practice saying the end of sing and then try starting directly with that sound: ng... ngăn.