Vietnamese is a non-inflected language, meaning verbs do not change form to express tense. Instead, Vietnamese uses time words (trạng từ thời gian) like “đã” (past), “đang” (present continuous), and “sẽ” (future) to show time.
Tôi ăn. – I eat. / I ate. / I will eat (depends on context).
Tôi đã ăn. – I ate.
Tôi đang ăn. – I am eating.
Tôi sẽ ăn. – I will eat.
Context is key. Always look for time words or previous sentences. You can add time expressions like “hôm qua” (yesterday), “bây giờ” (now), “ngày mai” (tomorrow) to make things clear.
📝 Tip: Don’t try to translate tenses word-for-word. Focus on time markers instead!