rồi / chưa

In Vietnamese, answering questions about whether you have done something or reached a certain state (structured as Subject + (đã) + Verb/Adjective + (Object) + chưa?) requires specific words that reflect completion. This pattern is heavily used with verbs, but also with adjectives to ask if a state has been reached yet (e.g., Đói chưa? - Are you hungry yet?, Xong chưa? - Are you finished yet?). Note that in everyday speech, subjects and objects are frequently dropped in both questions (e.g., Ăn chưa? - Have you eaten yet?) and answers.

• Rồi (Already): Confirms that the action is complete or the state is reached.
• Chưa (Not yet): Indicates that the action is incomplete or the state is not yet reached.

Sentence Placement:
As short answers, they can stand entirely alone (Rồi. / Chưa.). It is equally common and natural for native speakers to answer by repeating the verb or adjective while dropping the subject and object: Verb/Adjective + rồi (e.g., Ăn rồi - Ate already) or Chưa + Verb/Adjective (e.g., Chưa ăn - Haven't eaten yet). Native speakers also frequently combine the short answer with the repeated word for emphasis (e.g., Chưa, tôi chưa ăn - No, I haven't eaten yet, or Rồi, tôi ăn rồi - Yes, I have eaten already). If you want to answer with a full sentence, their placements are strictly different:

• Rồi goes at the end of the clause: Subject + Verb + Object + rồi. Note that while place phrases often go before rồi, time phrases are highly flexible and are most frequently placed at the beginning of the sentence to establish context (e.g., Hôm qua tôi ăn cơm rồi - I ate rice yesterday). It can still be followed by final particles like ạ or nhé. To emphasize completion, it is frequently paired with the past tense marker đã before the verb.
• Chưa goes immediately before the verb or adjective: Subject + chưa + Verb + Object. Note that the continuation adverb vẫn (still) frequently precedes chưa to emphasize that an action still hasn't happened despite time passing (e.g., Tôi vẫn chưa ăn - I still haven't eaten). To strongly emphasize that the action has never been done, you can use chưa bao giờ (never) before the verb instead. To ask about life experiences ('Have you ever...?'), you would include experience markers like từng or bao giờ, such as in the patterns đã từng ... chưa? or đã ... bao giờ chưa?. To answer these experience questions, you typically reuse the experience markers, such as Rồi, tôi từng [verb] rồi (Yes, I have [verb] before) or Chưa, tôi chưa từng [verb] (No, I have never [verb]).

Asking if something is finished:
When discussing the completion of an action, the word xong (finished) is heavily tied to this pattern. Asking [Verb] xong chưa? (Have you finished [verb]-ing?) is a core conversational staple. The natural answers are xong rồi (finished) or chưa xong (not finished yet).

Note on Rồi as 'And Then':
While rồi goes at the end of a clause to mean 'already', be aware that it can also act as a conjunction meaning 'and then' when placed between two verbs (Verb 1 + rồi + Verb 2). For example, Tôi ăn cơm rồi đi ngủ (I eat rice and then go to sleep). This is a different usage from the completion marker.

The Có ... chưa? Variation:
In spoken Vietnamese, especially in the South, you will often hear questions structured as Subject + có + Verb + chưa?. For action verbs, the standard affirmative answer remains Rồi or Dạ rồi. However, you can also use Có to emphatically confirm that the action did happen, usually followed by the full sentence (e.g., Có, tôi ăn rồi - Yes, I did eat).

Nuance of Chưa vs Không:
When choosing the negator, remember that chưa means you haven't done it yet (but might in the future). In contrast, không is a flat negative, refusal, or states a habit. You can use không or không + Verb as a direct answer to a chưa? question if you haven't done the action and have absolutely no intention of doing it. For example, answering Chưa to 'Have you eaten?' means you will eat later, while answering Không means you are refusing to eat.

Politeness:
These words are neutral. To make your answers polite when speaking to elders or superiors, simply add honorific particles. In Northern Vietnam, the standard polite response uses vâng at the beginning and ạ at the end (e.g., Vâng, chưa ạ - Yes, not yet, or simply Chưa ạ - Not yet). In Southern and Central Vietnam, using Dạ as a polite prefix is the standard (Dạ rồi - Yes, already / Dạ chưa - Yes, not yet). While Southerners usually drop the final ạ, it is occasionally used in customer service or texting.