Today let’s learn how to say yesterday, today, and tomorrow in Vietnamese.
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:
| sáng | morning |
| trưa | noon |
| chiều | afternoon |
| tối | night/evening |
| đêm | late night |
To say yesterday morning, this morning or tomorrow morning, you first identify that it is morning then clarify which morning.
For example:
| Hôm qua | Hôm nay | Ngày mai | |
| Sáng | Sáng hôm qua | Sáng hôm nay (Sáng nay) | Sáng ngày mai (Sáng mai) |
| Trưa | Trưa hôm qua | Trưa hôm nay (Trưa nay) | Trưa ngày mai (Trưa mai) |
| Chiều | Chiều hôm qua | Chiều hôm nay (Chiều nay) | Chiều ngày mai (Chiều mai) |
| Tối | Tối hôm qua | Tối hôm nay (Tối nay) | Tối ngày mai (Tối mai) |
| Đêm | Đêm hôm qua | Đêm hôm nay (Đêm nay) | Đêm ngày mai (Đêm mai) |