nai giạt móng, chó cũng le lưỡi
The deer's hooves worn flat, the dog's tongue hanging out — a chase that exhausted both and settled nothing.
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Where will you be? Anywhere Hà Nội & the NorthHuế / Đà Nẵng & the CenterSài Gòn & the SouthOnline slang Bắc ↔ Nam words
nai ăn đâu nát giạu đó
Where the deer grazes, the hedge is trampled — a guest's keep is the host's damage.
Nam mô A Di Đà Phật
Namo Amitābhāya, a common phrase of salutation used by Buddhists
nam nữ bất tạp tọa
Men and women do not sit mingled — the old propriety of separated company.
nam nữ thụ thụ bất thân
appropriately, unless related by blood or marriage, men and women should avoid physical contact
nam thực như hổ, nữ thực như miêu
men eat like tigers, women eat like cats
nam tôn nữ ti
valuing men above women, the belief that men are superior to women
nam đáo nữ phòng nam tắc tử, nữ đáo nam phòng nữ tắc dâm
A man in her chamber dies; a woman in his is disgraced — the old law's brutal asymmetry of trespass.
Namkiki
Namkiki — a derogatory regionalist nickname for southerners ('Nam Kỳ'); recorded here as discriminatory slang to recognize, not to use.
nan huinh nan đệ
Hard to find such a brother, hard such a younger — sibling excellence in matched pairs is rarest of all.
nay đây mai đó
Here today, there tomorrow — residence as a rumor.
nc
Texting shortcut for “nói chuyện” (to chat) — or “nước” (water); context decides.
ng
Texting shortcut for “người” — person.
ngang bằng sổ ngay
Level strokes and straight columns — accounts ruled clean; everything squared.
ngang lưng thì thắt bao vàng, đầu đội nón dấu, vai mang súng dài. Một tay thì cắp hỏa mai, một tay cắp giáo, quan sai xuống thuyền. Tùng tùng trống đánh ngũ liên, chân bước xuống thuyền nước mắt như mưa
Gold sash at the waist, pressed hat, long musket; flintlock in one hand, lance in the other, ordered down to the boats — drums beat five-fold, and boarding, his tears fall like rain — the conscript's farewell.
ngay ruột ngựa
Straight as a horse's gut — candor with no bends in it.
nghe hơi nồi chõ
Sniffing the steamer from outside — knowledge claimed from the smell of other people's cooking.
nghe miết điếc con ráy
Heard so often the ear-wax goes deaf — nagging repeated past all hearing.
nghi nhơn mạc dụng, dụng nhơn mạc nghi
Suspect, don't employ; employ, don't suspect — trust must be whole or withheld.
nghiêng thành đổ nước
Beauty to topple citadels and spill rivers — loveliness of kingdom-wrecking degree.
nghèo nhân nghèo nghĩa thì lo, nghèo tiền nghèo bạc chả lo là nghèo
Fear poverty of kindness and duty, not poverty of coin — the only destitution that matters is moral.
nghèo rớt mồng tơi
so damn broke; so financially wanting
nghĩa hải hào tình
A sea of decency between strangers — warm generosity owed to no one, freely given.
nghĩa nặng tình thâm
Heavy duty and deep affection — a bond of obligation and love grown profound.
nghề võ đánh trả thầy
The martial art turned on its master — the student striking with the very skill the teacher gave.
nghệ năng sở sử
The trade steers the tradesman — each calling bends its practitioner to itself.
nghệ thuật vị nghệ thuật
art for art's sake
nghị huyện tri thủy
Ants know where the water is — Guan Zhong dug at the ant-hills and the army drank; small creatures, sound intelligence.
ngoan xinh yêu
Ngoan xinh yêu — 'well-behaved, pretty, lovable': the tripartite compliment for someone adorably wholesome.
ngoe ngoảy như cua gãy càng
Sashaying like a crab with a snapped claw — a strut that its own damage makes ridiculous.
ngoài miệng thì nói Nam mô, trong lòng thì chứa ba bồ dao găm
'Nam mô' on the lips, three basketfuls of daggers in the heart — piety worn over an armory.
ngoảnh đi ngoảnh lại
Describes time passing in a flash.
ngu si hưởng thái bình
The simple enjoy the peace — untroubled by knowing better, the fool sleeps soundest.
nguy bất nhập, loạn bất cư
Enter no peril, dwell in no disorder — the wise map draws itself around danger.
nguyễn y vân
Nguyen-y-van — 'unchanged as ever': a pun reshuffling 'vẫn y nguyên' into a fake person's name.
ngàn cân treo sợi tóc
precarious, on thin ice
ngày ba tháng tám
The third day and the eighth month — the hungry gaps between harvests; the lean weeks of the farming year.
ngày một ngày hai
In a day or two — very soon; within days.
ngày nào em bé cỏn con Bây giờ em đã lớn khôn thế này Cơm cha, áo mẹ, công thầy Nghĩ sao cho bỏ những ngày ước ao
Once you were tiny; look how grown you are — father's rice, mother's clothes, teacher's pains: think how to be worth those hoping years.
ngày nảy ngày nay
nowadays; in this day and age
ngày Quốc tế Lao động
International Workers’ Day; May Day
ngày Quốc tế Thiếu nhi
Children’s Day
ngày xửa ngày xưa
once upon a time
ngày đường không bằng gang nước
A day's road is less than a hand-span of water — the shortest water crossing outdelays the longest land march.
ngày đầu tiên đi học
first day of school
ngáp ngắn ngáp dài
to be intensely bored
ngãi đoạn thân sơ chỉ vị tiền
Bonds cut and kin estranged, all for money — the one solvent that dissolves blood.
ngó lên nuộc lạt mái nhà, bao nhiêu nuộc lạt nhớ ông bà bấy nhiêu
Look up at the lashings of the roof — as many knots as there are, that many times I miss my grandparents.
ngôn dực trường phi
Words have long wings — speech flies farther than its speaker ever travels.
ngôn hành tương quỷ
Words and deeds at odds — professing one thing and practicing another.
ngôn quá kì thật
Words outrunning the truth — the account bigger than the fact.
ngôn thiểu tri đa
Few words, much knowing — the reticent mind is the full one.
ngôn tinh ngữ túy
Star-words and gem-speech — language distilled until it belongs in the anthologies.
ngôn tất hữu trúng
Speak so it lands — one sentence discloses the gentleman or the knave; aim every word.
ngông có kiểu
Eccentric with style — flamboyance carried off on personality alone.
ngăn hành lý phía trên
overhead locker
ngăn sông cấm chợ
Barring the rivers and banning the markets — cutting off the flow of goods between regions.
ngũ tử cướp cái
Five pips seize the deal — the tam cúc hand that wins the right to lead; grabbing first call.
ngư mục hổn châu
Fish-eyes mixed among pearls — fakes shelved with the genuine, daring the eye to sort them.
ngư thủy nhứt đoàn
Fish and water in one band — a fellowship as close as the element to what swims in it.