Họa sĩ sống ở thành phố.

Họa sĩ usually means painter or visual artist. In many learning materials, it is translated simply as artist, but it normally refers to someone who makes visual art, especially painting.

• họa relates to drawing/painting
• sĩ is a noun-forming element used in some professions or roles

So in this sentence, họa sĩ is the subject: the artist / a painter.

Vietnamese often leaves out articles like a, an, and the when the meaning is clear from context.

So Họa sĩ sống ở thành phố could be understood in English as:

• The artist lives in the city
• An artist lives in the city

The exact choice depends on context. Vietnamese does not need to mark that every time.

Here, sống means to live in the sense of to reside.

It can also mean to be alive, depending on context. For example:

• Tôi sống ở Hà Nội. = I live in Hanoi.
• Ông ấy còn sống. = He is still alive.

In your sentence, because it is followed by a location, it clearly means to live/reside.

Ở marks the location. In this sentence, sống ở means live in / live at.

So the structure is:

• họa sĩ = artist
• sống = lives
• ở thành phố = in the city

Without ở, the sentence would sound incomplete or unnatural. Vietnamese normally needs ở before the place after sống.

Usually, ở thành phố is the most natural choice here.

• ở = at/in
• trong = inside/within

So:

• sống ở thành phố = the normal way to say live in the city
• sống trong thành phố is possible, but it can sound a bit more literal, like live inside the city area, or it may add emphasis

For a basic sentence, ở thành phố is the better choice.

The word order is very similar to English:

• Họa sĩ = subject
• sống = verb
• ở thành phố = location phrase

So it follows:

Subject + Verb + Location

That is why it feels fairly straightforward to English speakers.

By itself, thành phố is a bare noun, so its exact English translation depends on context.

In this sentence, it most naturally means:

• the city
• a city

It is not clearly plural here. If Vietnamese wants to make the plural more explicit, it can use words like các or những:

• các thành phố = cities

If it wants to make it explicitly singular and indefinite:

• một thành phố = a city

In this sentence, họa sĩ is most naturally understood as singular, because there is no plural marker and the sentence reads like a simple statement about one person.

If you wanted to make it clearly plural, you could say:

• Các họa sĩ sống ở thành phố. = The artists live in the city.
• Những họa sĩ sống ở thành phố. = Artists/The artists live in the city.

Vietnamese often lets context decide number unless it needs to be made explicit.

No. Họa sĩ is gender-neutral.

It can refer to:

• a male artist
• a female artist

Vietnamese job titles usually do not change based on gender. If needed, gender can be added separately by context or with other words.

A rough pronunciation guide is:

• họa sĩ ≈ hwah-see
• sống ≈ sohng
• ở ≈ a short uh sound with a dipping tone
• thành phố ≈ tahnh foh

The tones are important:

• họa has a heavy, low tone
• sĩ has a ngã tone
• sống has a rising tone
• ở has a dipping tone
• thành has a low falling tone
• phố has a rising tone

A learner does not need perfect tones immediately, but they do matter for being understood.

No, it is not a name here. It is capitalized only because it is the first word of the sentence.

If it appeared in the middle of a sentence, it would normally be written họa sĩ unless it was part of a proper name or title.