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Running head: THE VERB PHRASE - ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE.

A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH-

VIETNAMESE VERB PHRASES

Trần Thị Ái Nhi

HCMC University of Pedagogy

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Introduction

In our globalization, the need for developing the relationship between Vietnam

and other countries has resulted in a great demand for language teaching, especially

English teaching throughout the country. However, English and Vietnamese are two

different languages. English has different characteristics from those of Vietnamese, for

example the grammar, the vocabulary, the pronunciation, the meaning…. Anyway,

whenever talking about characteristics of any language, we should mention the

components forming the sentence of that language. They may be word phrases such as

noun phrase, verb phrase, adjective phrase and adverb phrase … Therefore, in order to

have a deep look about the verb phrase of English as well as of Vietnamese, I decide to

make a research with the topic “A contrastive analysis of English-Vietnamese verb

phrases”. In this topic, I will present some general characteristics of the verb phrase in

English and Vietnamese. The purpose of presenting them is to discuss the similarities

and differences between them in two aspects: form and meaning. Also, I provide some

implications for teaching the verb phrase in Vietnam. Above all, I do this research with

the hope that it can help my readers clearer about all the similarities and differences of

the verb phrase in English and Vietnamese so that they can avoid making mistakes in

their translation between these two languages.

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THE VERB PHRASE

“In linguistics, a verb phrase is a syntactic structure composed of the predicative

elements of a sentence and its function is to provide information about the subject of the

sentence. In the generative grammar framework, the verb phrase is a phrase headed by

a verb. A verb phrase may be constructed from a single verb; often, however, the verb

phrase will consist of various combinations of the main verb and any auxiliary verbs,

plus optional specifiers, complements, and adjuncts” (Wikipedia, 2009). In other words,

a verb phrase concludes three parts: the main verb, the pre-additive elements and the

post-elements that express an action or state of being.

The English verb phrase

According to Kies (2009), an English verb phrase consists of a head verb, its

auxiliaries, its complements, and other modifiers. In general, it has two functional parts:

the auxiliary and the main verb.

* The auxiliary:

Auxiliary Examples

Modal(can, may, might, will, could, would, ought to, I will call you later.

need, should…followed by a base) Can you play the violin?

Perfect(forms of have, followed by –ed participle) My younger sister has learnt English for

10 years.

Progressive (forms of be, followed by –ing participle) The teacher is coming.

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Passive (forms of be, followed by –ed participle) The window was broken yesterday.

Support auxiliary (forms of do, followed by a base ) She doesn’t want to live far away from

her home.

*The main verb:

The most important part in a verb phrase is the head word. We call them main

verbs or lexical verbs. They are divided into two types: transitive and intransitive verbs. As

Beare (2009) said, transitive verbs are verbs that need direct objects followed. The direct

object can be a noun, pronoun or a clause. In contrast, intransitive verbs are verbs that

don’t go with any direct objects.

Types of Verbs Examples

1. I had already washed the dishes.

2. I saw you in the street yesterdy.

Transitive verbs 3. I have studied English for ten years.

4. Peter can speak Chinese.

5. My teacher gave me a book for my birthday.

1. She laughs at me.

2. Tom was singing.

Intransitive verbs 3. I understand now.

4. The baby sleeps a lot.

5. He is walking in the park.

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*Post-elements:

There are varieties of elements that go after the head verb in verb phrases. They can be

a “noun phrase, prepositional phrase, adverb phrase or a clause” (Nguyen, 2004).

Types of Post-elements Examples

Noun phrase My old friend had sent some good book to me.

Adverb phrase John came home very late last night.

Prepositional phrase We are staying in Ho Chi Minh City.

Clause I had thought that the rich are happy people.

The Vietnamese verb phrase:

“A Vietnamese verb phrase consists of three parts: the nucleus, the front and the

end” (Doàn et all, 2001).

Form: The front + the nucleus + the end

*The nucleus:

The nucleus can be a verb or a series of verbs. There are two kinds of verbs:

dependent verbs and simple verbs.

When a dependent verb plays the part of the nucleus, it must go with sub-

elements.
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Dependent verbs Meaning Examples

cần, nên, phải, cần phải, có Expressing the necessity and cần tiền, không thể nói, nên

thể, không thể… ability kiểm tra, phải học thuộc bài….

toan, định, dám, buồn, nỡ, Expressing willingness muốn đi học, chúc bạn may

muốn, mong, chúc.., mắn, dám làm, định đi ngủ,….

bị, được, chịu, mắc, đành… Expressing unwilling accepting được thưởng, bị điểm kém,

đành chấp nhận,….

bắt đầu, tiếp tục, hết, thôi… Expressing the beginning, the bắt đầu mưa, thôi việc, hết hạn,

on-going and the ending tiếp tục cố gắng….

When a simple verb plays the part of the nucleus, it may or may not take

subordinate elements. For example: đọc (truyện, sách), mặc (áo), viết (thư), vẽ (tranh),

làm (bánh, bài), sửa (xe, nhà, khóa), đóng (bàn, sách), thảo luận (bài học, kế hoạch), …

In some cases, the nucleus includes more than one verbs go together as a range

with related grammar. In this page, I only consider the type that consists of two verbs,

for example: ngồi nghỉ, làm mất, thổi bay, đàn hát, chơi đùa, đi coi... These two verbs

are mainly semantically related.

The series of verbs The relation

Cười nói, chơi đùa, đàn hát,… Two activities happen

Ngồi coi, đi coi, nằm nghỉ, đi chơi,… The second verb shows the purpose of the first one.

Bò nghiêng, ngã lăn, cười bò,ngã The second verb shows the manner of the first one.

ngồi,…

Thổi bay, hất tung, đập bể, làm mất, … The second verb shows the result of the first one.
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*The front:

The pre-elements of a verb phrase may be particles or lexical words. They are

grouped together into:

The pre-element Functions

Đều, cũng, vẫn, cứ, còn,… Express he similar happenings

Từng, đã, vừa, mới, sẽ,… Denote the time

Thường, hay, ít, hiếm,… Express the frequency

Rất, hơi, quá,… Express the degree

Có, không, chưa, chẳng,… Express affirmative or negative form

Hãy, đừng, chớ, nên, không nên,… Express the request or advice

Besides, lexical words can also play the role of the front. Most of them are

onomatopoeia and adjectives. They are used to “describe an activity or a status referred

to by the nucleus” (Doan et all, 2001) such as ầm ầm đổ xuống, khẽ rên, lác đác rơi,

nhanh quên, lâu mòn, chậm tiêu.

*The end

There are two types of the elements that go after the nucleus: subordinate words

and lexical words.

Subordinate words Functions Examples

Xong, rồi, đã,… Mark the end Ăn xong, về rồi,…

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Được, mất, phải,.. Express the result Mua phải đồ giả, bay mất, bán

được giá…

Với, cùng Express “together” Nói với, đi cùng

Ra, vào, tới, lui, qua, Denote the direction Bàn ra, đọc qua, nói lại,...

lại,…

Quá, lắm Denote degree Thích lắm, ghét quá,…

Ngay, liền, tức khắc, Express immediateness Đi liền, im ngay,…

Dần dần, từ từ,.. Express gradualness Đi từ từ, ăn hết dần dần,…

Also, lexical words can play the part of the end element of verb phrases, for

example: coi bộ, làm trò hề, uống hết sạch, ăn no, nói xỏ,…
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CONTRAST

Through this paper, I intend to contrast between English and Vietnamese verb

phrases in two aspects: form and meaning.

The first aspect to take into consideration when contrasting between English and

Vietnamese verb phrases is their forms. We can easily recognize that both English and

Vietnamese verb phrases have three parts: the central element, the pre-additive

element, and the post-additive element. Among them, the central element must be a

verb and it is obligatory while the two parts of additive elements can be optional to go

with the head verb.

However, English has the notion of tense such as present tense, past tense and future

tense but Vietnamese doesn’t. That is, English verb phrases change their form to mark

different tenses, for example:

e.g: I am sitting beside Mary. (The present continuous tense)

I can sit beside Mary in my evening class. (The simple present tense)

I sat beside Mary in my evening class last week. (The simple past tense)

I will sit beside Mary in my evening class tomorrow. (The simple future tense)

In contrast, Vietnamese verb phrases always keep the same form in every situation;

instead Vietnamese uses subordinate words such as đã, vừa, mới, đang, sẽ to denote

the time, for example:

e.g: Tôi đang làm bài tập. (I’m doing my homework.)

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Tối nay tôi sẽ làm bài tập. (This evening, I will do my homework.)

Tôi đã làm bài tập xong. (I have already done my homework.)

Similarly, form of the English verb phrase changes in interrogative and negative

sentences while Vietnamese also keeps the same form and adds subordinate words, for

example:

e.g: I didn’t see them - Tôi không nhìn thấy họ.

Can you speak French? - Bạn nói được tiếng pháp không?

When the verb phrase functions as a subject of the sentence, its form must change to

“V-ing” in English but keep the same in Vietnamese. For example, in English we say

“Reading is one of my hobbies” but in Vietnamese it is “Đọc sách là một trong những

thói quen của tôi”. Moreover, some English verbs must be followed by a preposition,

whereas Vietnamese do not need, for example: listen to, believe in, approve of, respond

to, compare to, introduce to…

In addition, there are similarities and differences in form of each part between two

languages. In both languages, the central part must contain head verbs, some of which

must be followed by objects and some of which may not. However, in English verb

phrases, it contains only one head verb but not a series of verbs like in Vietnamese. In

other words, unlike English, Vietnamese have form of one verb goes directly after

another verb as a range, for example:

+ Chủ nhật tuần sau tụi nó đi coi phim. - They will go to the movie next Sunday.

+ Tôi làm mất chìa khòa. - I have lost my key.

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+ Nó đi ngủ. - He goes to sleep.

The pre-element of the verb phrase can’t be an adjective in English but it can be in

Vietnamese, for example: nhanh khỏi, lâu mòn, khẽ kêu, nhẹ nhàng khuyên bảo.

Another aspect to consider about English-Vietnamese verb phrases is the

similarities and differences in their meaning. In general, the verb phrase provides

information about the subject of the sentence. The pre-additive element usually

functions the grammar while the post-additive element functions the meaning.

However, sometimes the same English verb can go with different prepositions to show

different meanings, such as make up, make from, make of, make for, and make off. All

of them have different meanings.

Moreover, the meaning of English auxiliaries is much more diversified. Although some

auxiliaries such as must, might, need, ought to, should have the same meaning of

obligation to do something, their usage depends on the level of obligation, for example

the meaning of “must” shows the strongest obligation among them. In contrast,

Vietnamese doesn’t have this term but uses subordinate words such as nên, phải, cần

to express those meanings. Besides, according to Du (2005), some verbs have different

meanings like the verb “có” in Vietnamese have both meanings of possession “have”

and existence “(there) is/ are” in English.

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SOME IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHING THE VERB PHRASE

IN VIETNAM

Through this contrastive analysis of the English-Vietnamese verb phrase, I would

like to discuss some implications for teaching the verb phrase in our country.

Firstly, it is obvious that students will try to translate from Vietnamese to English

and vice versa, so teachers should prevent them from translating word by word that

may make the verb phrase nonsense in the target language, for example: in

Vietnamese it is common to say “Bạn không được nói chuyên trong lớp học” or “Tôi

thích nghe nhạc”. However, if students translate them word by word, they will become

“You not talk in class” and “I like listen music” that are completely wrong in English.

Secondly, teachers should provide students with the clear explanation about

different forms of verb phrases to indicate different tenses. For example, when suffixes

such as -s, -ing, or -ed is added, and also taking note that model auxiliaries “have no

proper past time; four past forms exist, could, might, should, would, but they have

only a restricted use” and “cannot be used in the continuous tense” (Thomson &

Martinet, 1989)

Thirdly, one of the most important things in teaching the verb phrase is to

distinguish between transitive and intransitive verbs going together with their suitable

sub-elements; especially some English verbs can be both transitive and intransitive

(ESLDESK, 2009), for example: “study” is a transitive verb in “ John studies

Vietnamese” , but intransitive verb in “ John studies hard”.

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Last but not least, teachers should also clarify the meanings of different verb

phrases that go with different prepositions. In general, there are two types of them:

prepositional verbs and phrasal verbs (Ha, 1999). Both of their forms consist of a head

verb and a preposition, but their meanings are completely different. Prepositional verbs

just have normal meaning of a verb with its preposition, for example: laugh at, listen to,

wait for…. In contrast, every phrasal verb has specific meaning, for example: “put off”

means “ postpone”, “turn down” means “ refuse”, “pass away” means “die”….
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CONCLUSION

In conclusion, the verb phrase is a very important component to form sentences.

Actually, English and Vietnamese are different languages. For this reason, it is obvious

that each of them has its own characteristics. In this paper, I offered some general

knowledge about the verb phrase in English and Vietnamese as well as the contrast

between them in their forms and meanings. Moreover, I also suggest some implications

for teaching languages in Vietnam high school. To sum up, I hope that this study will

offer some explorations about English-Vietnamese verb phrases as well as provide

some useful ideas for language teachers.

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Reference list

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (2009). Verb phrase. Retrieved December 13th, 2009

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verb_phrase

Kies,D.(2009). Modern English Grammar. Retrieved December 15th, 2009, from

http://papyr.com/hypertextbooks/grammar/ph_verb.htm

Beare,K. (2009). Verb Structures and Patterns. Retrieved December 15th, 2009, from

http://esl.about.com/library/weekly/aa052902a.htm

Nguyen,H.L. (2004) An Outline of Syntax. Ho Chi Minh City: University of Education

Press.

Doan,T.T. , Nguyen, K. H. , Pham, N. Q. (2001). A Concise Vietnamese Grammar.

Hanoi: Hanoi National University

Du, N. H. (2005). Ngữ Pháp Tiếng Việt (Phần từ loại). Ho Chi Minh City: University of

Education Press.

Thomsom, A. J., & Martinet, A.V. (1993). A Practical English Grammar (4th ed). (Pham,

X. B., Trans.). Ho Chi Minh City: Tre Publishing House. (Original work published

1989).

ESLDESK. English Verbs. Retrieved December 25th, 2009 from

http://www.esldesk.com/grammar/verbs

Ha, V. B. (1999). Văn Phạm Anh Văn Miêu Tả (Các loại Động từ-Cách dùng thì). Ho Chi

Minh City: Tre Publishing House.