bao giờ

Vietnamese uses sentence structure to show time. When you ask a question with bao giờ (or its highly interchangeable synonyms khi nào and lúc nào) without using tense markers, you just move the question word! Note that bao giờ is a standard, everyday word that leans slightly more Northern, whereas khi nào and lúc nào are universally used across all dialects.

If you want to ask 'When will you go?', place bao giờ at the front: Bao giờ bạn đi? If you want to ask 'When did you go?', place it at the end: Bạn đi bao giờ? When answering, the time word usually mirrors this position: Ngày mai tôi đi (I will go tomorrow) vs. Tôi đi hôm qua (I went yesterday).

While you can use tense markers like sẽ or đã, it is often more natural to just rely on the position of bao giờ. Using đã with bao giờ at the end (Bạn đã đi bao giờ?) can sound less natural because it sounds like an unfinished đã ... chưa? (Have you ever...?) question where the speaker forgot to finish the sentence.

Bao giờ asks for a general timeframe, like a day, month, or year. If you want to know the exact time on the clock, use mấy giờ instead. Bao giờ, khi nào, and lúc nào are typically for general timeframes, though native speakers might still answer with a specific time if it fits the context. In Southern Vietnam, you will often hear chừng nào (which is often used for the future) and hồi nào (which is strictly for the past).

A crucial warning for English speakers: bao giờ and khi nào can be used as the conjunction 'when' to connect future or conditional statements (e.g., 'Bao giờ bạn rảnh, hãy gọi cho tôi' - When you are free, call me). However, they cannot be used for past or definite statements (e.g., 'When I was in Vietnam...'). To say 'when' for past events, you must use khi or lúc instead.

You can also combine bao giờ with prepositions to ask 'since when' (từ bao giờ) or 'until when' (đến bao giờ). To express anticipation or impatience, use the pattern Bao giờ [Subject] mới [Verb]? (When will [Subject] finally [Verb]?), for example: Bao giờ bạn mới đi? (When will you finally go?).

To ask about life experiences ('Have you ever...?'), the most standard and natural patterns are Đã bao giờ... chưa?, Có bao giờ... chưa?, or Đã từng... bao giờ chưa? (e.g., Bạn đã bao giờ đi Việt Nam chưa?). To answer 'never' to these questions, you can use chưa bao giờ, which means 'never (in the past, up to now)'. This is different from không bao giờ, which means 'never (as a general rule, or in the future)'. You might also hear chẳng bao giờ, which is an emphatic, colloquial equivalent of không bao giờ meaning 'never at all'.

Bao giờ also appears in other common phrases like bao giờ cũng (always) or as a conjunction meaning 'whenever', which you will learn as you become more proficient in Vietnamese.