Tôi hiểu nghĩa.

I understand the meaning.

Breakdown of Tôi hiểu nghĩa.

• tôi: I
• hiểu: to understand
• nghĩa: the meaning

Questions & Answers about Tôi hiểu nghĩa.

What does each word in Tôi hiểu nghĩa. mean?

• Tôi = I
• hiểu = understand
• nghĩa = meaning

So the sentence is literally I understand meaning, but in natural English it means I understand the meaning.

Why is tôi used here? Is it always the Vietnamese word for I?

Not always. Tôi is a neutral, polite, fairly safe way to say I, so it often appears in textbooks.

In real life, Vietnamese speakers very often use other pronouns based on age, relationship, and social situation, such as em, anh, chị, con, cháu, and so on.

So:

• tôi = a neutral/formal I
• it is correct here
• but it is not the only way to say I

Does hiểu change like English verbs do?

No. Vietnamese verbs do not conjugate the way English verbs do.

So hiểu stays hiểu whether you mean:

• understand
• understood
• will understand
• am understanding

Time is usually shown by context or by extra words such as:

• đã hiểu = understood / understood already
• đang hiểu = understanding
• sẽ hiểu = will understand

In this sentence, hiểu by itself just means understand, with no tense specifically marked.