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Future & conditional
The future is a marker in front of the verb, the conditional is a conjunction, and neither touches the verb itself.
sẽ: will
Ngày mai tôi sẽ đi Hà Nội. — "Tomorrow I will go to Hanoi." Anh ấy sẽ đến lúc bảy giờ. — "He will come at seven."
As with the past, a time word alone is enough in speech — ngày mai tôi đi Hà Nội — and sẽ adds certainty or formality.
sắp: about to
Xe buýt sắp đến. — "The bus is about to arrive." Tôi sắp xong. — "I'm nearly done." Sắp Tết rồi. — "Tết is almost here."
Sắp is the near future, and one of the most useful words in the language.
định: intend to
Tôi định đi Huế. — "I'm planning to go to Huế." Anh định làm gì? — "What are you going to do?"
muốn: want to
Tôi muốn học tiếng Việt. — "I want to learn Vietnamese."
Muốn plus a verb is how much of "going to" gets said.
If: nếu … thì
Nếu "if" opens the condition; thì "then" opens the consequence, and it is nearly always said:
Nếu trời mưa thì tôi ở nhà. — "If it rains, I'll stay at home." Nếu có thời gian thì đến nhé. — "If you have time, come, ok?"
There is no conditional mood. The same sentence covers "if it rains I'll stay" and "if it rained I would stay"; the difference, when it matters, is in the time words and in đã.
Would have: past counterfactual
A counterfactual puts đã in the thì clause and often mà after nếu:
Nếu tôi biết thì tôi đã không đi. — "If I had known, I wouldn't have gone." Nếu mà anh đến sớm hơn thì đã gặp được cô ấy. — "If you had come earlier you would have met her."
If only: giá (mà)
Giá mà tôi có nhiều tiền. — "If only I had lots of money." Giá trời đừng mưa. — "If only it wouldn't rain."
The polite "would"
English uses the conditional for politeness — "would you", "I'd like". Vietnamese does the same job with có thể … được không? and with muốn:
Anh có thể giúp tôi được không? — "Could you help me?" Tôi muốn một cà phê. — "I'd like a coffee."
Other conditionals
| word | meaning |
|---|---|
| hễ … là | whenever … then (habitual condition): hễ mưa là ngập "whenever it rains it floods" |
| miễn là | as long as |
| trừ khi | unless |
| nếu không | otherwise, if not |
If you speak Korean
Sẽ is -ㄹ 거예요, sắp is 곧 / -려고 하다 in the sense of "about to", định is -려고, muốn is -고 싶다. Nếu … thì is -(으)면 with the thì standing where the Korean ending goes: 비가 오면 집에 있을게요 = nếu trời mưa thì tôi ở nhà, clause for clause.
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