chó đá vẫy đuôi
A stone dog wagging its tail — flattery from what shouldn't be able to move.
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Where will you be? Anywhere Hà Nội & the NorthHuế / Đà Nẵng & the CenterSài Gòn & the SouthOnline slang Bắc ↔ Nam words
chó đâu có sủa lỗ không
Dogs don't bark at an empty hole — where there's barking there was something to bark at.
chót lưỡi đầu môi
Tongue-tip and lip-edge — glib words with nothing behind them.
chôn nhau cắt rốn
where one was born; (the place) of one's birth
chùa rách có bụt vàng
A ruined temple can hold a golden Buddha — shabby walls, precious contents.
chúa vắng nhà gà mọc đuôi tôm
Master away, the chicken sprouts a shrimp's tail — absence promotes the barnyard instantly.
chúc bạn một ngày vui vẻ nhé!
Have a good day!
chúc mừng năm mới
Happy Lunar New Year!
chúc mừng sinh nhật
happy birthday!
chơi cầu lông hoặc squash
to play badminton or squash
chơi dao, có ngày đứt tay
Play with knives and the day comes you're cut — court danger long enough and it accepts.
chơi hoa cho biết mùi hoa, cầm cân cho biết cân già cân non
Handle the flower to know its scent, hold the scales to know full weight from short — experience is the only teacher.
chơi hết mình
Playing with all you've got — holding nothing back.
chơi tới bến
Partying to the last wharf — going flat-out until there's nowhere further.
chơi xuân kẻo hết xuân đi, cái già lóc thóc nó thì theo sau
Enjoy spring before spring is spent — age comes shuffling right behind.
chơn lòng đỏ da
Bitter medicine ends the illness — cure lives in what's hard to swallow.
chơn trời mặt biển
The sky's rim and the sea's face — distance without end.
chơn ướt chơn ráo
Feet still wet, feet barely dry — newly arrived and green to the place.
chưa biết mèo nào cắn mỉu nào
there's no telling which cat will end up having a bite on the other
chưa có gió, mõ đã rung
No wind yet, and the clapper's already swinging — alarm outrunning its cause.
chưa giàu đà lo ăn cướp
Not yet rich, already dreading robbers — worry hired before there's anything to guard.
chưa khảo đã xưng
Confessing before the rack is brought — blurting out what nobody had yet asked.
Chưa khỏi vòng đã cong đuôi
Don't celebrate until you are 100 % sure there is a reason to do so.
chưa ráo máu đầu
The blood on the scalp not yet dry — too newly hatched for the boast being made.
chưa thấy quan tài chưa đổ lệ
to refuse to be convinced until one is faced with the grim reality; to be tenacious, resolute or pertinacious in one's pursuit of a goal despite of obstacles or advice
Chưa đỗ ông nghè đã đe hàng tổng
Close to the English saying: “Sell not the bear's skin before you have caught him.”.
chưởng qua đắc qua, chưởng đậu đắc đậu
Plant melons, harvest melons; plant beans, harvest beans — deeds return strictly after their kind.
chạy chơn không bén đất
Running with feet that never touch earth — haste at full stretch.
chạy mất dép
To flee in such a panic that you leave your sandals behind — to run for it, comically fast.
chạy rông như chó dái
Roaming like an unneutered dog — ranging restlessly all over the neighborhood.
chạy trời không khỏi nắng
Run from the sky, you won't escape the sun — no flight outruns what's owed.
chạy trời sao khỏi nắng
Run from the sky, you won't outrun the sun — what's coming will find you.
chả nên cơm cháo gì
Coming to neither rice nor porridge — effort that amounts to nothing at all.
chả ra ngô ra khoai
Neither corn nor sweet potato — coming to nothing definite; a muddle with no clear result.
chải gió gội mưa
Shy of the lamp, bashful before the fire — modesty that blushes even at light.
chải gió tắm mưa
Combed by wind, bathed by rain — a life out in the world's rough weather.
chấn thương cổ do giật mạnh
whiplash injury
chậm mà chắc
Close to the English saying: “Slowly but surely.”.
chậu úp khôn soi
No sun reaches under the upturned basin — some secrets sit where no light can get.
chắp tay rủ áo
Folded hands and hanging sleeves — standing idly by when the matter is one's own responsibility.
chằm Zn
Depressed/„so done” — nerd-humor spelling: Zn is zinc (kẽm), so “chằm kẽm” ≈ “trầm cảm”.
chẳng chóng thì chầy
sooner or later
chẳng là
Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see chẳng, là.
chẳng lấy cũng khuấy cho hôi
If I can't have it, I'll spoil it for smelling — the jilted suitor's revenge of fouling what refused him.
chẳng ngon cũng sốt, chẳng tốt cũng mới
If not tasty, at least hot; if not fine, at least new — freshness redeems the humble offering.
chẳng trách
Used to demonstrate the inevitable result of what one has stated: no wonder
chẳng trúng cũng cọ bia
Missing the bullseye still grazes the target — a guess near enough to count.
chẳng ăn, chẳng chơi, nửa đời cũng ra ma
Neither feasting nor playing, half a life and you're a ghost regardless — thrift's memento mori: the grave takes savers too.
chẳng đặng đừng
Having no way not to — cornered into it; unavoidable.
chẳng ưa nói thừa cho bỏ
Disliking someone, you say a bit extra — spite always rounds the story up.
chặt to bung dừ
Chop it large, boil it soft — the coarse cook's shortcut; effort saved, texture lost.
chẽ tre nghe lóng
Split bamboo by the joint, judge news by the listening — verify along the grain before you commit the blade.
chếc gồi
Cutesy spelling of "chết rồi" — "I'm dead / uh-oh", a playful cry when something goes wrong.
chết kèn trống, sống dầu đèn
Dead: horns and drums; living: lamp-oil — each state of a person has its own running costs.
chết mê chết mệt
Head-over-heels smitten — infatuated to the point of losing all sense.
chết no hơn sống thèm
Better to die full than live craving — appetite's defiant motto against all abstinence.
chết thẳng cẳng
Dead with legs stretched straight — finality in one posture.
chết trẻ khỏe ma, chết già lú lẩn
Die young, a nimble ghost; die old, a muddled one — mortality's consolation for the early-taken.
chết vinh còn hơn sống nhục
Better die a beggar than live a beggar.
chết đi được
'...to death' — the all-purpose Vietnamese intensifier of feeling: happy, sad or full, to the point of dying.