The word order can be formalized as: a (subject) + b (linking verb) + c (adjective) Eg: The cake tastes sweet a + b + c Your perfume smells musky a + b + c That music sounds beautiful a + b + c She seems innocent a + b + c I. 2. 2. Word order through Syntactic functions of Vietnamese Adjective phrases a. Word order in Attributive function In Vietnamese adjective phrases, adjective in the attributive function often follow the noun they modify according to the order: a (noun) + b (adjective) (noun) + b (modifier) + c (adjective) a (noun) + c (adjective) + b (modifier) Eg. : Lan da nau c? a co ? y v? n cu? n hut toi = Her brown skin still attracts me Do la bu? i sang mai th? t d? p = That is a very nice early morning M? t chi? c vay l? a Ha Dong th? t d? p a + c + b + d M? t chi? c vay c? a Ha Dong b? ng l? a th? t d? p a + b + c + d M? t chi? c vay l? a th? t d? p c? a Ha Dong a + c + d + b M? t chi? c vay th? t d? p b? ng l? a c? Ha Dong a + d + c + b b. Word order in Predicative Function In Vietnamese adjective phrases, adjectives can directly function as predicative like verbs and the order can be formalised as : a (subject) + b (adjective) Eg. : B? phim th? t hay = The film was very interesting a + b When Vietnamese adjectives are in the predicative function, they can combine with the criteria of verbs. These are : + aspect-time maker: da, s? , t? ng, con, chua, etc. a (subject) + b (aspect-time maker) + c (head) Eg. : Co ngu? i toc da b? c pho + b + c II. Contrastive analysis of the word order in English adjective with Vietnamese equivalence It is obvious that both English and Vietnamese are analytical languages but they belong to different linguistic typologies. English is an inflectional and analytical language, whereas Vietnamese is a typical isolating and non-inflectional language. Therefore, apart from the similarities which do not cause difficulties for learners, there are many differences between English and Vietnamese adjective phrases and their orders which can cause a variety of problems (errors and confusion) for learners.