Cái áo này rất xấu.

very

Breakdown of Cái áo này rất xấu.

• này: this
• cái áo: the shirt
• xấu: ugly (in appearance)

Questions & Answers about Cái áo này rất xấu.

What does cái mean here? Is it the same as the or a in English?

Not exactly. Cái is a classifier, not an article.

In Vietnamese, classifiers are often used before nouns, especially when you are pointing out a specific item. In cái áo này, cái helps introduce áo as a countable object.

So:

• áo = shirt / clothing item
• cái áo = a shirt / the shirt (depending on context)
• cái áo này = this shirt

Unlike English, Vietnamese does not have direct equivalents of a/an and the used in the same way.

Why is này after the noun instead of before it?

In Vietnamese, demonstratives like this and that usually come after the noun phrase.

So English and Vietnamese are ordered differently:

• English: this shirt
• Vietnamese: cái áo này

A useful pattern is:

• classifier + noun + này = this ...
• classifier + noun + đó/kia = that ...

So này means this, but it comes after áo.

Why is there no word for is in this sentence?