6 tones marked with diacritics
Pronoun choice reflects age and social relationship
No inflection; word order carries meaning
Measure words required between number/demonstrative and noun
The Vietnamese number system
Verbs are invariable; context marks tense
không and chưa
Yes/no and WH-questions
Adjectives follow the noun; degree words
Days of the week and common time expressions
đã, đang, sẽ, rồi, xong
Animate, inanimate, shape-based classifiers
Marking possession and modification order
hơn, bằng, nhất
có thể, phải, nên, muốn, cần, được
Coordinating and subordinating conjunctions
Motion direction attached to verbs
ở, tại and positional nouns
Doubling words for meaning nuance
mà as relative pronoun
Adversative bị and benefactive được
Chaining multiple verbs in sequence
Topicalization for emphasis and discourse
nhé, nhỉ, thôi, chứ, ạ, đấy
nếu...thì, hễ...thì, giá mà...thì
rằng and là for reported speech
rất, quá, lắm, hơi, khá, thật
làm, khiến, cho and resultative complements
Register differences in vocabulary and grammar
Purpose, concession and cause-result
