Cổ của tôi đang đau.

A word-for-word breakdown is:

• cổ = neck
• của = of / belonging to
• tôi = I / me / my
• đang = currently, in the middle of
• đau = hurt, ache, be painful

So the structure is roughly:

• cổ của tôi = my neck
• đang đau = is hurting / hurts right now

Vietnamese possession usually comes after the noun, not before it as in English.

So:

• cổ của tôi = neck of me = my neck
• nhà của tôi = house of me = my house
• bạn của tôi = friend of me = my friend

This is one of the big word-order differences from English.

Yes. In everyday Vietnamese, của is often omitted when the meaning is already clear.

So all of these are possible:

• Cổ của tôi đang đau.
• Cổ tôi đang đau.

The version without của often sounds more natural in casual speech.

đang marks something as happening right now or as an ongoing situation.

So:

• Cổ tôi đau. = My neck hurts.
• Cổ tôi đang đau. = My neck is hurting right now.

With đau, đang adds a sense of a current, ongoing problem. It is helpful, but not always necessary.

Vietnamese often does not use a separate verb like English to be in sentences like this.

The word đau can function as the predicate by itself:

• Cổ tôi đau. = My neck hurts.
• literally: My neck painful/hurting

So Vietnamese does not need an extra word equivalent to is here.

It behaves a bit like both, depending on how you think about it.

In sentences like this, it is often easiest for learners to treat đau as a stative verb or adjective-like verb meaning:

• to hurt
• to ache
• to be painful

That is why đau can stand directly after the subject:

• Cổ tôi đau. = My neck hurts.
• Tay tôi đau. = My arm hurts.

This sentence is correct, but many speakers would more naturally say:

• Tôi đau cổ. = I have neck pain / My neck hurts.
• Cổ tôi đau. = My neck hurts.

These are usually more conversational than Cổ của tôi đang đau.

Very roughly:

• Cổ tôi đau focuses on the neck
• Tôi đau cổ focuses on me having pain in the neck

All are understandable and correct.

Vietnamese allows both patterns:

• Tôi đau cổ = I hurt in the neck / I have neck pain
• Cổ tôi đau = My neck hurts

English strongly prefers one style, but Vietnamese is more flexible here.

A useful shortcut:

• If you want to say I have pain in [body part], Tôi đau + body part is very common.
• If you want to talk about the body part itself, [Body part] + đau also works well.

Not always. cổ can have different meanings in different contexts.

Common ones include:

• cổ = neck
• cổ = old/ancient, in words like cổ điển = classical
• in some Southern speech, cổ can also mean she/her as a pronoun

But in Cổ của tôi đang đau, the meaning is clearly neck.

Usually cổ means neck, though the neck/throat area can sometimes feel semantically close.

If you specifically mean throat, Vietnamese more often uses:

• họng = throat
• cổ họng = throat

So if you mean I have a sore throat, a more typical expression would be:

• Tôi đau họng.

If you mean my neck hurts, then cổ is the right word.

Usually, no.

Body parts are often used without a classifier in ordinary statements:

• Cổ tôi đau.
• Tôi đau đầu.
• Tay tôi mỏi.

You may sometimes hear cái cổ, but in a simple sentence about pain, it is very common to just say cổ.

A few helpful points:

• cổ has the hỏi tone
• của also has the hỏi tone
• tôi, đang, and đau have no tone mark, so they use the level tone
• đ is pronounced like English d

So pay special attention to the two dipping/rising tones in:

• cổ
• của

Those tones are important for sounding natural.

Add không before đau:

• Cổ của tôi không đau. = My neck does not hurt.
• Cổ tôi không đau. = My neck does not hurt.

If you want to say doesn’t hurt anymore, you can say:

• Cổ tôi không đau nữa.

A natural way is:

• Cổ bạn có đau không?
• Bạn có đau cổ không?

Both are common.

Pattern to notice:

• có ... không? is a very common yes/no question pattern in Vietnamese

So:

• đau không? = hurt or not? / does it hurt?

It is basically neutral and correct.

But in everyday conversation, speakers often shorten it a little:

• Cổ tôi đau.
• Tôi đau cổ.

So Cổ của tôi đang đau is fine, but it may sound slightly more explicit than what people say in quick casual speech.