Bé ngủ yên.

to sleep

Breakdown of Bé ngủ yên.

• bé: the child; little one
• yên: still; undisturbed

Questions & Answers about Bé ngủ yên.

What does bé mean here?

Here, bé means baby, little child, or little one.

A native English speaker may expect a word like đứa bé for child/baby, and that is also possible. But in everyday Vietnamese, bé by itself is very common when talking about a young child.

Depending on context, bé can sound:

• like a regular noun: the baby / the child
• like a familiar way to refer to a small child

So Bé ngủ yên is a very natural short sentence.

Why is there no word for the or a?

Vietnamese usually does not require articles like a, an, or the.

So:

• Bé ngủ yên can mean The baby sleeps peacefully
• or A baby is sleeping peacefully
• or simply The child is sleeping soundly

The exact English article depends on context, but Vietnamese does not need to mark that here.

Is bé only a noun, or can it mean something else?