Trận đấu bắt đầu hôm nay.

Trận đấu means match, game, or contest, depending on context.

It is made up of:

• trận: a round, match, battle, or sporting event
• đấu: to fight, compete, or contest

Together, trận đấu is a very common way to say a match or the match in sports and competitions.

For example:

• trận đấu bóng đá = football match
• trận đấu quyền anh = boxing match

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

So Trận đấu bắt đầu hôm nay can mean:

• The match starts today
• A match starts today

In real usage, context tells you which one is meant. If both speaker and listener already know which match they are talking about, English will often use the, but Vietnamese simply says trận đấu.

The basic word order here is:

Subject + Verb + Time

So:

• Trận đấu = the match
• bắt đầu = start / begin
• hôm nay = today

Literally, it is: Match begin today

This is a very normal Vietnamese sentence pattern.

Yes, hôm nay can also go at the beginning.

Both are natural:

• Trận đấu bắt đầu hôm nay.
• Hôm nay trận đấu bắt đầu.

The first version sounds like the speaker is mainly stating something about the match. The second version gives a little more focus to today.

Vietnamese often allows time expressions to appear either at the beginning or later in the sentence.

It means the idea of to start / begin, but Vietnamese verbs do not change form for person or number the way English verbs do.

So bắt đầu can correspond to:

• start
• starts
• started
• will start

The exact English form depends on context.

In this sentence, because of hôm nay, the natural translation is usually starts today or begins today.

Vietnamese usually relies on context, time words, and sometimes extra markers.

In Trận đấu bắt đầu hôm nay, the time word hôm nay helps tell us when the action happens. Without more context, English often translates it as starts today.

If you want to make tense clearer, Vietnamese can add words such as:

• đã for past: Trận đấu đã bắt đầu hôm nay.
• đang for ongoing action: Trận đấu đang bắt đầu... (less common in this exact sentence)
• sẽ for future: Trận đấu sẽ bắt đầu hôm nay.

But Vietnamese often leaves these out when the meaning is already clear.

Here bắt đầu is the main verb of the sentence.

Vietnamese does not have an infinitive marker like English to. So the dictionary form and the sentence form often look the same.

In this sentence:

• Trận đấu = subject
• bắt đầu = verb
• hôm nay = time expression

So bắt đầu is simply the action: begins / starts.

Yes. Bắt đầu can be translated as either start or begin.

So this sentence could be:

• The match starts today.
• The match begins today.

Begin is a bit more formal in English, but both are correct.

Sometimes, but trận đấu is the more common and natural choice for a sports match or contest.

Very roughly:

• trận đấu often refers to a specific match, game, or bout
• cuộc đấu can sound more like a struggle, contest, or confrontation, depending on context

For ordinary sports usage, trận đấu is usually the safest and most natural expression.

You can add không before the verb:

Trận đấu không bắt đầu hôm nay.

This means: The match does not start today or The match isn’t starting today.

A very common Vietnamese pattern is:

Subject + không + Verb

In normal conversation, hôm nay almost always means today.

It is one of the most common Vietnamese time expressions:

• hôm qua = yesterday
• hôm nay = today
• ngày mai = tomorrow

So in this sentence, hôm nay is simply the time word today.