giả chết bắt quạ
Playing dead to catch the crow — the trap baited with one's own corpse.
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Where will you be? Anywhere Hà Nội & the NorthHuế / Đà Nẵng & the CenterSài Gòn & the SouthOnline slang Bắc ↔ Nam words
giả lịnh giả thị
Waving hands inside a sack — gestures grand, none visible; effort without witness.
giả tỉnh giả say
Feigning sober, feigning drunk — condition adjusted to convenience.
giảo giam hậu
Held in prison awaiting the noose — condemned to strangulation after a stay of execution.
giấu như mèo giấu cứt
to put a lot of effort into hiding something bad
giấy ghi chú có keo dán
sticky notes
giấy rách phải giữ lấy lề
A torn page still keeps its margin — however poor you fall, keep your family's honor straight.
giấy trắng mực đen
in black and white
giấy trắng mực đen, làm quen thiên hạ
White paper, black ink — put it in writing and strangers can trust each other.
giầu ba họ khó ba đời
No family rich three generations, none poor three lifetimes — fortune rotates through every gate.
giầu có ba mươi tết mới hay
Wealth shows on the thirtieth of Tết — solvency's audit falls on New Year's Eve, when all debts come due.
giầu từ trong trứng giầu ra, khó tự ngã-ba khó về
Rich from inside the egg — fortune prenatal; some hatch wealthy.
giầu về bạn, sang về vợ
Rich through friends, distinguished through a wife — fortune is social before it is financial.
giầu ăn khó chịu
Weeping when hungry, laughing when full — the stomach running the face.
giầu điếc sang đui
Rich and deaf, noble and blind — rank insulating its holder from every inconvenient signal.
giận cá chém thớt
to take out one's anger on someone who was not at fault
giận hóa mất khôn
Hatred is as blind as love.
giận mắng lặng thương
The statue frets for the paste-jar, the jar for the statue — mutual dependence fretting in both directions.
giận thì đánh quạnh thì thương
Strike in anger, cherish in loneliness — the family bond swings but never severs.
giật đầu cá, vá đầu tôm
Snatching from the fish's head to patch the shrimp's — repairs funded by adjacent shortages.
giằng chẳng đứt, dứt chẳng ra
Tugging won't break it, snapping won't free it — an entanglement proof against both patience and force.
giặc pha không bằng nhà cháy
Raiders can't ruin you like your own house burning — the inside catastrophe beats the outside one.
giặc đến nhà, đàn-bà cũng đánh
When the invader reaches the house, even the women fight — the nation's line that every child learns.
giẻ-cùi tốt mã
The jay in fine feathers — plumage impeccable, substance absent.
giếng đó ếch dó
Where the well is, the frog is — the evidence lives at the scene; find the well, charge the frog.
giết chó khuyên chồng
Killing the dog to counsel the husband — the folk-tale wife's drastic object lesson; a shock staged for someone's own good.
giết gà dùng dao mổ trâu
use a sledgehammer to crack a nut
giết người đền tội
Take a life, answer with your own — homicide's oldest invoice.
giỏ nhà ai quai nhà nấy
Every house's basket has its own handle — each family bears its own stamp and mold.
giỏ đựng quần áo bẩn
laundry basket
giống nhau như đúc
like two peas in a pod
giồng cây có ngày ăn quả
Plant the tree, and someday eat its fruit — patience with roots.
giời cao đất dầy
High heaven, thick earth — the immensities; what the reckless never measured.
giời có mắt
Heaven has eyes — wrongs are witnessed, whatever the courts miss.
giở mặt như bàn tay
Flipping the face like flipping a palm — allegiance reversed in one wrist-turn.
giữ mồm giữ miệng
Guarding mouth and lips — watching one's words to stay out of trouble.
giữa đường đứt gánh
to give up halfway through a task; (of love) to be unfinished
GTVT
initialism of giao thông vận tải (“traffic and transport”)
gà chết vì tiếng gáy
The rooster dies of its own crowing — boasting is what brings the knife.
gà cậy gần chuồng
The hen is bold near her coop — bravery within sprinting distance of safety.
gà ghét nhau một tiếng gáy
Roosters hate each other over one crow — grudges seeded by a single note of precedence.
gà gáy gở
A rooster crowing at the wrong hour — the classic ill omen.
gà khôn gà chẳng đá lang Gái khôn gái chẳng bỏ làng gái đi
A wise rooster doesn't spar with the flock; a wise girl doesn't quit her village — prudence keeps its home ground.
gà mất mẹ
A chick that lost the mother hen — cheeping in circles; any charge suddenly unled.
gà mọc lông măng
The chick sprouting its first down — youth at its most confident and least fledged.
gà mọc đuôi tôm
A chicken sprouting a shrimp's tail — the upstart's first small flourish.
gà đẻ rồi gà tục tác,
The hen lays, then cackles the alarm — doing the deed and raising the cry, as if another did it.
gái bán hoa
working girl; female prostitute; literally "flower-selling girl"
gái có chồng như gông đeo cổ
A married woman wears the cangue at her neck — the old verse's grim portrait of wifehood.
gái giống cha giàu ba họ, trai giống mẹ khó ba đời
A daughter like her father enriches three clans; a son like his mother beggars three generations — the old cross-resemblance arithmetic.
gái hơn hai, giai hơn một
A wife older by two, a husband by one — the folk formula for a matched pair.
gái khôn trai dỗ, lâu buồn cũng xiêu
Even a sensible girl, courted long enough, leans — persistence outlasts prudence.
gái không chồng như thuyền không lái
A woman unmarried is a boat without a rudder — so ran the old verse, steering by husband.
gái ngoan làm quan cho chồng
A capable wife holds office for her husband — running the household so well she governs his standing too.
gái tham tài trai tham sắc
Women covet means, men covet looks — desire's oldest division of labor.
gái tứ chiếng
A woman of the four garrisons — the drifting demimonde of the old towns.
gánh bàn độc mướn
Carrying the altar-table for hire — shouldering solemn burdens that were never yours.
gánh cực mà đổ lên non, cong lưng mà chạy, cực còn theo sau
Haul your misery up the mountain and dump it; bend your back and run — misery still follows behind.
gánh team
To carry the team — doing everyone’s share while teammates spectate.
gánh vàng vào kho
Hauling gold into the treasury — labor whose whole profit lands in official vaults.