Bé đuổi con chó.

Here, bé is a noun meaning a small child, little one, or baby/young child depending on context.

A useful thing to know is that bé can also be an adjective meaning small or little in other sentences. But in Bé đuổi con chó, it is the subject of the sentence, so it is being used like a noun: the child / the little one.

Not necessarily. It is capitalized because it is the first word of the sentence.

So in this sentence, Bé probably just means the child.
However, in real life, Bé can also be used as a nickname or a term of address, so context matters.

Vietnamese usually does not use articles the way English does. There is no direct equivalent that must appear before every noun.

So Bé đuổi con chó can be understood as:

• The child chases the dog
• A child is chasing a dog

Which one sounds best depends on context. Vietnamese often leaves definiteness unstated unless it needs to be made clear.

Con is a classifier used with many animals.

So:

• chó = dog
• con chó = dog with the animal classifier, often more natural when referring to an actual dog

This is very common in Vietnamese. Classifiers appear between numbers/demonstratives and nouns, and they are also often used even without a number.

No. In this sentence, con is not the number one. It is the classifier for animals.

So con chó does not mean one dog. It means something more like the animal dog / a dog.

If you wanted to say one dog, you would say một con chó.

Yes, you might hear chó without con in some situations, but con chó is very natural and common when talking about a specific animal.

Very roughly:

• chó = dog, more bare/general
• con chó = a/the dog, more natural when referring to an individual animal

So Bé đuổi con chó sounds like a normal everyday sentence.

The word order is:

• Bé = subject
• đuổi = verb
• con chó = object

So the structure is Subject + Verb + Object, just like in English.

That means the child is doing the chasing, and the dog is the thing being chased.

Đuổi can mean to chase, to pursue, or to drive away, depending on context.

In this sentence, the most natural meaning is chase.

For example, đuổi could be used in different ways:

• đuổi theo = chase after
• đuổi đi = drive away / make go away

But in Bé đuổi con chó, simple chases is the best fit.

Vietnamese verbs do not change form for tense the way English verbs do.

So đuổi by itself does not specifically mean present, past, or future. The time is usually understood from context or shown with extra words.

For example:

• Bé đang đuổi con chó. = The child is chasing the dog.
• Bé đã đuổi con chó. = The child chased the dog.
• Bé sẽ đuổi con chó. = The child will chase the dog.

Without those markers, Bé đuổi con chó is often understood as a simple present-style statement or a context-dependent statement.

A rough guide:

• bé: like beh with a rising tone
• đuổi: roughly like doo-ee / dooi said as one syllable, with a dipping-rising tone
• con: roughly kon with a level tone
• chó: roughly chaw with a rising tone

A few extra notes:

• đ is pronounced like a regular English d
• tones are important, so even if the consonants and vowels are close, the tone still matters
• pronunciation varies somewhat by dialect, especially between northern and southern Vietnamese

So the biggest things to notice are the tones on bé, đuổi, and chó.