Yesterday, today, and tomorrow in Vietnamese

Today let’s learn how to say yesterday, today, and tomorrow in Vietnamese.

Photo by Gabrielle Henderson on Unsplash

Table of Contents

Yesterday

Yesterday is “hôm qua” or “ngày hôm qua” in Vietnamese. They mean the same thing and can be used interchangeably.

If you have read my post about ngày, you know that ngày means “day.” Just saying “hôm qua,” people will understand that you mean “yesterday.” Adding “ngày” is just to emphasize that you are talking about the day, not just the time.

Today

Today is “hôm nay” or “ngày hôm nay” in Vietnamese. They mean the same thing and can be used interchangeably. Again, adding “ngày” is just to emphasize that you are talking about the day, not just the time. Without it, people still understand that you mean today when you say “hôm nay.”

Tomorrow

Now that you have learned how to say yesterday and today in Vietnamese, you may guess tomorrow may start with “hôm.” However, this is not the case.

Tomorrow is “ngày mai” in Vietnamese. There’s no hôm here.

The word “mai” alone can have different meanings depending on the context. “Mai” in “hoa mai” refers to a type of flowers. Mai in some other situations means tomorrow, such as ngày mai (tomorrow) and sáng mai (tomorrow morning).

Morning, afternoon, evening and night

Now what if you want to specify whether it was yesterday morning, yesterday afternoon or yesterday evening? What about tonight? Or tomorrow morning, tomorrow afternoon or tomorrow night?

We have previously learned how to say morning, afternoon, evening and night in Vietnamese. As you recall:

sángmorning
trưanoon
chiềuafternoon
tốinight/evening
đêmlate night

To say yesterday morning, this morning or tomorrow morning, you first identify that it is morning then clarify which morning.

For example:

Hôm quaHôm nayNgày mai
SángSáng hôm quaSáng hôm nay (Sáng nay)Sáng ngày mai (Sáng mai)
TrưaTrưa hôm quaTrưa hôm nay (Trưa nay)Trưa ngày mai (Trưa mai)
Chiều Chiều hôm quaChiều hôm nay (Chiều nay)Chiều ngày mai (Chiều mai)
TốiTối hôm quaTối hôm nay (Tối nay)Tối ngày mai (Tối mai)
ĐêmĐêm hôm quaĐêm hôm nay (Đêm nay)Đêm ngày mai (Đêm mai)

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