In the paper, a visco-elasto-plastic constitutive model and a method for determining model parameters for soft clay are presented. In this model total strain of soft clay is assumed to be divided into three parts: instantaneous elastic, visco-elastic and visco-plastic. The characteristics of instantaneous and visco-elastic deformation of soft clay are simulated by Merchant＇s model, the plastic is by a model with two yield surfaces. And related constitutive equation is conducted. A number of stress-controlled triaxial tests are performed to calculated the model parameters. The visco-elasto-plastic model is used for analysis of the displacement of an embankment on soft ground by use of three-dimensional finite element method.The predicled settlements agree well with the measured data. It is indicated that the viscous characteristics should be taken into account in detormation analysis tor soft clay.