Giấy phép lái xe có thời hạn sử dụng.

The driving licence has a validity period.

Breakdown of Giấy phép lái xe có thời hạn sử dụng.

• có: to have
• giấy phép lái xe: the driving licence
• thời hạn sử dụng: the validity period

Questions & Answers about Giấy phép lái xe có thời hạn sử dụng.

What does giấy phép lái xe mean word by word?

It is a compound noun phrase:

• giấy phép = permit, license
• lái xe = to drive / driving

So giấy phép lái xe literally means driving permit/license, which is the standard formal way to say driver’s license.

A very natural, less formal everyday alternative is bằng lái or bằng lái xe.

Why is there no word for a or the in the sentence?

Vietnamese does not use articles the way English does. There is no direct equivalent of a or the in most sentences.

So:

• Giấy phép lái xe có thời hạn sử dụng.

can mean something like:

• A driver’s license has a validity period
• The driver’s license has a validity period
• Driver’s licenses are valid for a limited time

Which one sounds best in English depends on context. In Vietnamese, the bare noun phrase is often enough.

What does có mean here?

Here có means to have.

So the structure is:

• Giấy phép lái xe = driver’s license
• có = has
• thời hạn sử dụng = period of validity / usage term

So literally, the sentence is:

• A driver’s license has a period of validity.

This is a very common Vietnamese pattern:

• X có Y = X has Y