mượn đầu heo nấu cháo
Borrowing a pig's head to boil porridge — staging wealth with borrowed props.
Browse Tiếng Việt 2356
All languages English Tiếng Việt
Where will you be? Anywhere Hà Nội & the NorthHuế / Đà Nẵng & the CenterSài Gòn & the SouthOnline slang Bắc ↔ Nam words
mạ nhơn như giáo nhơn
Scolding a man is schooling him — your breath spent, his wisdom gained; the rebuked walks off with the profit.
mạc hiện hồ ẩn, mạc hiển hồ vi
Nothing shows like the hidden — the secret is the loudest thing in the house.
mạng dân trí trọng
The people's lives weigh heaviest — no charge is graver than a human life.
mạng lý hữu thì chung tu hữu, mạng lý vô thì mạc cượng cầu
What fate holds will come; what fate lacks, don't force — the ledger of one's portion is already written.
mạnh ai nấy làm
Whoever's strong does as they please — everyone charging off their own way with no coordination.
mạnh dùng sức, yếu dùng chước
The strong spend strength, the weak spend stratagem — every build of person has its own lever.
mạnh gạo bạo tiền
Strong in rice, bold in money — courage that rises with the pantry.
mạt cưa mướp đắng
deceiver, swindler, fraudster, scammer
mải mại thuận nhơn tình
Trade follows willingness — a sale both sides wanted leaves nothing to repent.
mất bò mới lo làm chuồng
To take precautions only after the loss has already happened.
mất cả chì lẫn chài
to lose everything, including initial investment
mất hút con mẹ hàng lươn
to be gone without a trace after committing misdeeds
mất lòng còn ruột
Feelings bruised, kinship intact — the quarrel stops short of the blood.
mất lòng trước nhưng được lòng sau
Offend first, please after — the honest word stings today and earns trust tomorrow.
mất miếng ăn, lộn gan lên đầu
Lose a mouthful and the liver flips overhead — no rage like the rage over a plate.
mất mạng rồi
"The internet's down" — deliciously, "mạng" means both network and life, so this also reads "I've lost my life": accurate.
mất một đền mười
Lose one, repay ten — restitution at punitive scale.
mất não
Brainless-mode — doing something so dumb your brain looks uninstalled; usually self-deprecating or teasing.
mất sổ gạo
a tragic, distressing, miserable situation (like losing one's book of rations)
mất ăn mất ngủ
overthinking, worrying, and stressing out to the point of not eating or sleeping well
mất động lực
To lose motivation — the tank hits empty even though the to-do list hasn't; modern shorthand for drive gone missing.
mấy giờ rồi
"What time is it?" — the essential clock question; "rồi" makes it about NOW, usually with mild alarm attached.
mấy giờ rồi?
What time is it?
mấy giờ đóng cửa
"What time do you close?" — ask it early; the answer decides whether tonight's plan survives.
mấy đời bánh đúc có xương, mấy đời dì ghẻ lại thương con chồng
When did rice-cake ever have bones; when did a stepmother ever love her husband's child — the bitterest of family proverbs.
mần chi
Rural Central–Southern "doing what?" — "mần" is the folksy pronunciation of "làm" (to do), giving the question a countryside warmth.
mật mỡ đỡ đứa vụng
Honey and fat rescue the clumsy cook — rich ingredients forgive poor hands.
mật ngọt chết ruồi
sweet words are poison; a honey tongue, a heart of gall
mật ít ruồi nhiều
Little honey, many flies — demand entirely out of scale with supply.
mắc gì
Southern "why on earth...?" — half question, half protest, when someone's behavior makes no sense to you.
mắt chữ O mồm chữ A
to be shocked; to be gobsmacked
mắt phượng mày ngài
Phoenix eyes and silkworm brows — the classical specification of a beautiful face.
mặt chay mày đá
A fasting face over stone brows — impassivity past embarrassing.
mặt cắt không còn giọt máu
A face drained of its last drop of blood — white with terror.
mặt dày bánh đúc
A face thick as rice cake — brazen; armored against all shame.
mặt dày mày dạn
shameless; barefaced
mặt hoa da phấn
A flower face and powdered skin — fresh, silken feminine beauty.
mặt ngang mũi dọc
A level face and a straight nose — presentable; nothing to apologize for.
mặt phấn mồm son
Powdered face and rouged mouth — a woman all surface, painted for display.
mặt trơ như mặt thớt
A face blank as a chopping block — shameless; impervious to embarrassment.
mặt xanh nanh vàng
Green face and yellow fangs — the physiognomy of menace, or of ruinously hard living.
mặt xám mày xanh
Mistletoe crowding the branch — the guest outgrowing its host.
mẹ chồng không ai nói tốt nàng dâu, nàng dâu không ai nói tốt mẹ chồng
No one speaks well of the daughter-in-law to the mother-in-law, nor of the mother-in-law to the bride — the household's oldest cold front.
mẹ già như chuối chín cây, gió lay mẹ rụng, con phải mồ côi
An aged mother is a banana ripe on the tree — one gust and she falls, and the child is orphaned — cherish her while the stem holds.
mẹ già ở tấm lều tranh Sớm thăm tối viếng mới đành dạ con
An old mother in a thatched lean-to — visit at dawn and again at dusk, or a child's heart cannot rest.
mẹ gà con vịt chít chiu, mấy đời mẹ ghẻ nưng niu con chồng
Mother hen, duckling brood — when has a stepmother doted on the husband's child; mismatched care, thinly given.
mẹ nuôi con bằng giời bằng bể, con nuôi mẹ con kể từng ngày
A mother feeds her child by the sky and sea; the child feeds its mother counting the days — devotion downstream, arithmetic upstream.
mẹ tròn con vuông
round mother, squared baby
mềm nặn rắn buông
Soft, they mold you; hard, they let go — the world kneads the pliant and drops the firm.
mễ châu tân quế
Rice dear as pearls, firewood dear as cinnamon — famine prices; the cost of bare survival gone mad.
mệt rứa
A Central groan of weariness — "so tiring / what a drag". The "rứa" turns an ordinary complaint into unmistakably Central speech.
mọc lông trong bụng
Long strength and broad shoulders — youth built for carrying; and expected to.
mọc sừng
to be cuckolded (by one's wife)/cuckqueaned (by one's husband); to be cheated on (by one's spouse)
mọt dân hại quốc
Termites of the people, blight of the state — officials who eat the beams they were hired to guard.
mỏng môi hay hớt
Thin lips love to blab — physiognomy's warning label for gossips.
mống dài trời lụt, mống cụt trời mưa
A long rainbow floods, a stubby one rains — the farmer's sky-reading rule.
mồ coi cha níu chơn chú, mồ côi mẹ tríu vú dì
Fatherless, cling to uncle's leg; motherless, to auntie's breast — the kin the orphan is owed.
mỗi cây mỗi hoa, mỗi nhà mỗi cảnh
Different trees have different flowers; different families have different situations. / Every family goes through its own problems.
mỗi người một nẻo
to each his own (every person is entitled to his or her personal preferences and tastes)
Advertisement
Ad space — ads help keep Idiomer free. Premium will remove them.