no nên bụt, đói nên ma
Fed, a Buddha; starved, a ghost — morality runs on meals.
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Where will you be? Anywhere Hà Nội & the NorthHuế / Đà Nẵng & the CenterSài Gòn & the SouthOnline slang Bắc ↔ Nam words
no rồi
"I'm full" — the only polite escape from Vietnamese hospitality's endless refills; expect one more scoop anyway.
no star where
It's fine, no problem — a joke word-for-word "translation" of "không sao đâu" (không = no, sao = star, đâu = where). Classic Vietnamese-English wordplay.
no trong mo ngoài đất sét
Full inside, palm-sheath and clay outside — the cowherd's trick of plastering the hungry buffalo; padding over emptiness.
no xôi chán chè
Stuffed with sticky rice, sick of sweet soup — sated to the point of revulsion.
non Bồng nước Nhược
The Bồng peaks and Nhược waters — fairyland; the immortals' postal address.
non cao cũng có đường trèo, hiểm nghèo cũng có lối đi
The high mountain has its climbing path; even peril keeps a way through — no terrain is entirely without a road.
nuôi con cho được vuông tròn Mẹ thầy đầu gãi xương mòn gối cong. Nuôi con khó nhọc đến giờ Trưởng thành con phải biết thờ hai thân
Raising a child to full and whole, the parents' heads scratch bare, bones wear, knees bow — grown now, the child must honor those two.
nuôi con không phép kể tiền cơm
No parent invoices the rice — feeding one's children admits no bookkeeping.
nuôi con mới biết sự tình Thầm thương cha mẹ nuôi mình hồi xưa
Only in raising my own children do I understand — and silently love my parents for raising me back then.
nuôi cáo chuồng gà
Keeping a fox in the hen-coop — sheltering the one who will devour you.
nuôi heo rán lấy mỡ, nuôi con đỡ chơn tay
Raise the pig for lard, raise the child for helping hands — the farmhouse arithmetic of dependents.
nuôi khỉ dòm nhà
Keeping a monkey to watch the house — entrusting the wrong creature and paying for it.
nuôi ong tay áo
to protect or raise someone who could later betray or turn against you; to nourish a viper in one's bosom
nuôi ong tay áo, nuôi khỉ dòm nhà
A bee in the sleeve, a monkey watching the house — nurtured enemies posted at your softest points.
NVCC
initialism of nhân vật cung cấp
nx
Texting shortcut for “nữa” — more / also. “j nx” = what else?
nà ní
Nà ní — Vietnamese respelling of Japanese 'nani': whaaat?!, disbelief in anime intonation.
nài hoa ép liễu
Forcing the flower and bending the willow — coercing a woman's favors; sexual imposition.
này kia khác nọ
this one here, that one there, something else and that other one
nát giỏ còn bờ tre
The basket breaks; the bamboo hedge stands — the tool is lost, the source that makes tools remains.
nát như tương
Mashed as fermented bean paste — pulped past recognition.
nâng khăn sửa túi
Lifting the towel and straightening the purse — the old ideal of a wife's attentive service to her husband.
ném tiền qua cửa sổ
Throwing money out the window — spending with reckless, showy waste.
nén bạc đâm toạc tờ giấy
A silver ingot tears through the paper — money rips the strongest document; bribery beats writ.
nín như thóc
Quiet as stored paddy — not one grain of a word.
nói chi
Central Vietnamese "say what?" — either a genuine "what did you say?" or a mild "what are you even saying", depending on tone.
nói chín thì nên làm mười Nói mười làm chín kẻ cười người chê
Say nine, then do ten; say ten and do nine, and the world will laugh — deeds must outrun words.
nói chín thì phải làm mười
Promise nine, deliver ten — whatever you commit to out loud, your hands must slightly outdo; talk writes checks that work has to over-cash.
nói chậm thôi
"Please speak slowly" — the second-best friend; native speed drops instantly and with sympathy.
nói có sách, mách có chứng
Claims must be backed by sources and accusations by evidence — speak with proof.
nói dễ, làm khó
Easier said than done.
nói gì thì nói
anyway, anyhow, in any case, be that as it may, nevertheless
nói gần nói xa chẳng qua nói thật
Talk near, talk far — nothing beats talking straight — circumlocution's one-line refutation.
nói hay hơn hay nói
Speaking well beats speaking often — few words that land outrank a stream that doesn't.
nói hươu nói vượn
to chat idly; to shoot the breeze
nói lại được không
"Could you say that again?" — the learner's best friend; politer with a vocative and endlessly reusable.
nói lời phải giữ lấy lời Đừng như con bướm đậu rồi lại bay
Give your word and keep your word — don't be the butterfly that lands and flits away.
nói mười làm chín, kẻ cười người chê
Say ten, do nine — and the crowd will laugh and jeer: fall even one notch short of your own boasting and the shortfall is all anyone remembers.
nói một tấc đến giời
Talking an inch and reaching heaven — exaggeration achieving orbit.
nói ngang cành bứa
Talk crosswise as a bứa branch — argument that grows at right angles to sense.
nói người phải ngẫm đến ta Thử sờ lên gáy xem xa hay gần Nói người phải ngẫm đến thân Thử sờ lên gáy xem gần hay xa
Speaking of others, weigh yourself — feel the back of your own neck and judge how near it lands.
nói ngọt lọt đến xương
Sweet words slip through to the bone — honeyed speech penetrates where force cannot.
nói như phát, nhát như cheo
Loud as an axe, timid as a mouse-deer — the boom of the voice inversely sized to the nerve.
nói như rót vào tai
Speech poured straight into the ear — persuasion that flows without a drop spilled.
nói như rồng
Talking like a dragon — grand speech; delivery outrunning substance.
nói như rựa chém xuống đất
Words like a machete into earth — speech that lands once, deep, and stays.
nói thật đấy
"I'm serious" — drops the joking frame; what follows is meant. Southern speech says "nói thiệt đó".
nói thằng cuội
Talking like the Man in the Moon — Cuội's own genre: fluent, charming, false.
nói trước bước không qua
Close to the English saying: “Don't count your chickens before they're hatched. (Mr. B Lam).”.
nói trước quên sau
Saying it first, forgetting it after — memory expiring at the end of the sentence.
nói đâu quên đấy
forgetful; blithe; having a tendency for things to go in one ear and out the other
nói đóng đanh
Words driven like nails — speech that fixes itself in place.
nói để ngoài tai
Words parked outside the ear — advice received at the threshold and left there.
nóng như lửa
Hot as fire — temper or fever at flashpoint.
nóng quá
"So hot" — weather, soup, or temper by context; as weather-talk it is the country's most spoken sentence from April to September.
nôm na là cha mách qué
The plain vernacular is the father of impudence — so sneered the mandarins at honest nôm; plain speech wears the insult proudly.
nôm na mách qué
Homespun and impudent — plain speech with its elbows out; the old sneer at vernacular writing.
núi ai đắp mà cao, bể ai đào mà sâu
Who banked the mountain so high, who dug the sea so deep — the rhetorical awe that opens the oldest verses.
núi cao còn có núi cao hơn
do not be smug about your achievements, as there are always people who do even better
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