An arm and a leg, a dime a dozen: money idioms in English and Vietnamese

2026-07-31 · Idiomer

Every language is rich in money idioms — trade, debt and bargains are where language gets creative fast. Here's the English core set, with notes on how Vietnamese frames the same ideas.

When things cost too much

• Cost an arm and a leg — brutally expensive. The image is paying with your own body.
• Break the bank — from casino gambling: winning more than the house can pay. Now mostly used in the negative: "a gift that won't break the bank."
• A rip-off — the blunt everyday term for being overcharged.

When things are cheap

• A dime a dozen — so common it's nearly worthless. America's smallest coin doing its biggest metaphorical work.

Earning and providing

• Bring home the bacon — to earn the household's living. Food and wages have been the same metaphor since medieval fairs.
• Bread and butter — your main source of income; the thing that pays the bills.

The lecture every child gets

Money doesn't grow on trees — the universal parental sermon. Vietnamese parents deliver the same lesson, often with the proverb tradition's heavier artillery: work, patience and gratitude proverbs like ăn quả nhớ kẻ trồng cây (when you eat fruit, remember who planted the tree) tie money to moral debt in a way English rarely does.

Browse the whole money topic — 460+ entries across both languages — or the gold & silver topic for the treasure-flavored ones. Then make them stick with a 10-question drill.

Want these phrases to stick? Drill them with endless practice questions →