G9
G9 — texting shorthand for 'good night', Vietnamese-style (G + nine = 'nite').
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Where will you be? Anywhere Hà Nội & the NorthHuế / Đà Nẵng & the CenterSài Gòn & the SouthOnline slang Bắc ↔ Nam words
ga đến và ga đi
arrivals and departures
gai trên rừng ai mứt mà nhọn
Who whittled the forest thorns sharp? — nature needs no craftsman; things are as they grow.
gan cóc mật công
Toad's liver and peacock's bile — the proverbial poisons; what none may touch and live.
gan cóc tía
The red toad's nerve — outsized daring in a small package.
gan là sắt
A liver of iron — nerve that does not bend.
gan tướng giặc
A rebel general's gall — audacity of the professionally outlawed.
gan vàng dạ sắt
A gold liver and an iron heart — loyalty in refractory metals.
GATO
Jealous of someone else’s success or good fortune — envious hating.
ghi xương khắc cốt
to never forget; to be etched in one's memory
ghét cay ghét đắng
to have an extreme and utter hatred
ghế an toàn cho trẻ em
child safety seat
ghế ít đít nhiều
Few chairs, many behinds — more contenders than posts; a scramble for position.
gia bần trí đoản
A poor house shortens the wit — want leaves no slack for thinking far.
gia Phú tiểu nhi kiêu
Rich house, proud children — wealth teaches its young everything but humility.
giai có vợ như dợ buộc chân
A married man drags the tether at his ankle — marriage as mutual harness, his half of the couplet.
giai khôn lắm nước đái, gái khôn lắm nước mắt
A capable man makes much water, a capable woman many tears — the folk theory of each sex's chief solvent.
giai không vợ như cau không buồng
A man unmarried is an areca palm without a flower-sheath — standing, but bare of what crowns it.
giai thương vợ nắng quá chiều hôm, gái thương chồng đương đông buổi chợ
She loves him like the crowded morning market; he loves her like the slanting afternoon sun — her love bustles, his lingers.
giai tơ vớ nạ giòng
A green youth landing a seasoned widow — innocence matched with experience, to the village's amusement.
giai tứ chiếng, gái giang hồ
A man of the four garrisons, a woman of rivers and lakes — the matched pair of drifters.
giang hồ tứ chiếng
A drifter of the four garrisons — at home in every town and belonging to none.
giang sơn dễ đổi, bản tính khó dời
changing a country's borders is easy, but changing a person's character is hard
giang sơn nào anh hùng ấy
Every landscape breeds its own hero — each realm crowns from its own soil.
giao bóng ăn điểm trực tiếp
ace; a serve won directly without being returned
giao long ly thủy, thất phu khả chế
A dragon out of water is any man's captive — the hero off his ground can be handled by a nobody.
giao nghĩa mạc giao tài
Befriend for principle, never for purse — money is the one basis friendship can't survive.
giao tài nhơn nghĩa tuyệt
Where money enters the friendship, humanity exits — the ledger evicts the bond.
gieo gió gặp bão
What you reap shall reap.
gieo gió gặt bão
We reap as we sow.
gieo nhân nào gặt quả nấy
you reap what you sow
giun séo lắm cũng phải quằn
Even the worm, trodden enough, writhes — the meekest thing has a turning point.
già chơi trống bỏi
an old man playing the trống bỏi (a Vietnamese clapper drum toy played by children)
già đòn non lẽ
to use force to coerce someone into submission is better than to use reason
giàu dể ngươi, khó nói láo
The rich grow careless, the poor grow evasive — one can afford neglect, the other can't afford truth.
giàu giờ ngọ, khó giờ mùi
Rich at noon, broke by one — fortune keeps no longer schedule than the hours.
giàu là họ khó người dâng
The rich get claimed as kin; the poor get left as strangers — genealogy follows the money.
giàu nghèo có người ta cùng mình
Rich or poor, others share the road with you — no one is wealthy alone or needy alone.
giàu người tiếng mình
Their wealth, your good name — envy nothing; guard the one asset that is yours.
giàu trẻ chớ mầng khó trẻ chớ lo
Rich young, don't gloat; poor young, don't despair — the road is long enough to reverse both.
giàu vì bạn, sang vì vợ
men tend to act rich to their friends, classy to their wives
giàu út ăn khó út chịu
The youngest inherits the feast or the famine — last in line for whichever the parents leave.
giàu đặng trung đặng hiếu, khó mất thảo mất ngay
Wealth affords loyalty and devotion; poverty costs them — filial duty has a budget line.
giá bao gồm hai bữa ăn
a rate that includes two meals
giá cao chém thấp
Price held high, offer chopped low — the hatchet raised grandly that lands where it always meant to.
giá thú bất khả luận tài
In marriage, no talk of price — bargain over a wedding and you've made it a sale.
giá áo túi cơm
A clothes-rack and a rice-sack — a person reduced to what he wears and eats; the useless well-fed.
giáng sinh vui vẻ
Merry Christmas
giáo đa thành oán
Too much correcting breeds resentment — even good counsel, over-poured, curdles.
Giêsu Maria
Expletive, used to add emphasis.
giòi trong xương giòi ra
The maggots come from inside the bone — the scandal was bred, not brought.
gió chiều nào theo chiều ấy
to follow whichever way the wind is blowing
gió mùa thu mẹ ru con ngủ Năm canh dài, mẹ thức đủ năm canh
Autumn monsoon: mother sings the child to sleep — five long watches, and she wakes through all five — the lullaby's ledger of sleepless love.
gió táp mưa sa
continuous difficulties and disaster
gió đưa cành trúc la đà, tiếng chuông Trấn Vũ, canh gà Thọ Xương Mịt mù khói tỏa ngàn sương Nhịp chày Yên Thái mặt gương Tây Hồ
Wind sways the bamboo low across Trấn Vũ's bell and Thọ Xương's rooster-watch; through mist and pounding of Yên Thái's pestles, West Lake lies a mirror — Hanoi's dawn, engraved in four lines.
gió đưa cây cải về trời, rau răm ở lại, chịu lời đắng cay
The wind bears the mustard plant to heaven; the knotweed stays behind to swallow the bitterness — the one taken, the one left to grieve.
giúp lời không ai giúp của, giúp đũa không ai giúp cơm
Words are lent freely, wealth never; chopsticks are offered, rice is not — help stops where cost begins.
giăng quầng thì cạn, giăng tán thì mưa
A haloed moon means drought; a veiled moon means rain — read tomorrow in tonight's ring.
giơ dáng dạng hình
Seal the jar's mouth — the secret stoppered; and Kiều's counsel: some things must stay corked.
giường nằm mềm hoặc giường nằm cứng
soft or hard sleeper berth