sa chân nhỡ bước
A slipped foot, a missed step — one stumble, and the path is a different one.
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Where will you be? Anywhere Hà Nội & the NorthHuế / Đà Nẵng & the CenterSài Gòn & the SouthOnline slang Bắc ↔ Nam words
sa cơ lỡ vận
to fall into misfortune, especially with one's loss of asset
sai một ly, đi nghìn dặm
Off by a hair, astray by a thousand miles — precision's compound interest, in the negative.
sanh kí tử qui
Life is a lodging, death the return — we are clay on loan, homeward bound.
sanh sự sự sanh
Start trouble and trouble starts — incidents breed in whichever hand stirs them.
sanh thuận tử an
Live rightly, die peacefully — the calm death is prepaid by the decent life.
sanh tử bất sanh tâm, sanh ngưu vô sanh giác
Parents make the child, not its heart; the buffalo, not its horns — nature issues what nurture never ordered.
sao mau thì mưa, sao thưa thì nắng
Stars crowded, rain; stars sparse, sun — the night sky as almanac.
sao thế
Northern "what's the matter?" — same caring question as "sao vậy", wearing its Northern particle.
sao vậy
"What's wrong? / why?" — the concern-question; Southern "vậy" where the North asks "sao thế".
say tít cò bợ
Drunk as a spinning pond-heron — inebriation with its own axis.
se chỉ đào
Twisting the peach thread — tying the marriage knot, in the matchmaker's old phrase.
si lung ám á gia hào phú, trí huệ thông minh khước thọ bần
The dull and mute inherit mansions; the brilliant inherit poverty — providence balancing its books sideways.
sin lũi
Sorry — a deliberately cutesy respelling of "xin lỗi", used in texting to make an apology sound light and affectionate.
sinh nghề tử nghiêp
Close to the English saying: “Live by the sword, die by the sword. (the Bible)Mr. B.”.
sinh nhật bạn ngày nào?
When is your birthday?
sinh nhật vui vẻ
happy birthday
sinh sự, sự sinh
Close to the English saying: “Never trouble trouble till trouble troubles you.”.
sinh voi sinh cỏ
Birth the elephant, and grass grows — providence scales to what it creates; children arrive with their provision.
sinh vô gia cư, tử vô địa táng
Born with no house to live in, dead with no ground to lie in — destitution's full biography in two clauses.
siêng ăn nhác làm
Keen to eat, slack to work — appetite without industry.
slay
Slay — borrowed English: to absolutely nail it; serving excellence with style.
sml
Vulgar “get wrecked / worked to the bone” — initialism of “sấp mặt l*”: face-down exhausted or utterly defeated.
sn
Texting shortcut for “sinh nhật” — birthday. “cmsn” = chúc mừng sinh nhật (happy birthday).
stress nhẹ
"Mildly stressed" — the self-diagnosis for manageable pressure; often an understatement delivered with a tired smile.
stt
Texting shortcut for “status” — a social-media post. “lên stt” = to post about it.
suy bụng ta ra bụng người
to project (to assume qualities or mindsets in others based on one's own)
suy cổ nghiệm kim
Weigh the old to test the new — history is the instrument the present is measured with.
suy kỉ cập nhơn
Measure yourself to measure others — your own wishes are the ruler for everyone's.
suy lạng tính đồng
Weighing by the tael, counting by the coin — scrupulousness down to the smallest unit.
suy ra
which implies that; which means that; it follows that; ⇒
sàng đầu kim tận, tráng sĩ vô nhan
Gold spent to the bed-head, the hero has no face left — generosity exhausted, standing goes with it.
sát nhứt miêu, cứu vạn thử
Kill one cat, save ten thousand mice — one hard stroke that spares a multitude.
sân si
Petty and score-keeping — from the Buddhist trio tham-sân-si (greed, anger, delusion), repurposed for people who cannot let the smallest slight go.
sít rịt
Uncannily lucky or unlucky — a “secret”-tier coincidence (from English “secret”).
sóng ngã thuyền câu lướt dập
When the wave breaks the fishing boat, others' oars beat it under — misfortune invites the pile-on.
sôi hỏng bỏng không
The sticky rice failed and the puffed rice came to nothing — both attempts, one emptiness.
sôi máu
blood-boiling
sông dài cá lội biệt tăm, phải duyên chồng vợ ngàn năm cũng chờ. Ruộng ai thì nấy đắp bờ, duyên ai nấy gặp đừng chờ uổng công
The long river hides its fish from sight — but a fated match waits a thousand years; bank your own field, meet your own fate.
sông sâu có thể bắc cầu, lòng người nham hiểm biết đâu mà mò
A deep river can be bridged — but who fathoms a treacherous heart — engineering ends at the human interior.
sông sâu nước chảy đá mòn Của kia ăn hết, nghĩa còn ghi xương
Deep rivers flow and stone wears; feasts are eaten and gone, but kindness is carved in the bone.
sông sâu sóng cả
Deep rivers and great waves — perils and hardships that must be crossed.
sĩ vị tri kỉ giả dụng, nữ vị duyệt kỉ giả dung
The able serve those who know them; a woman adorns herself for the one who loves her — recognition is the soil of worth.
sơ cua
A backup or spare — originally a spare part (from French «secours»), now anyone or anything kept in reserve, including the romantic understudy kept warm in case the main relationship stalls.
sơn hào hải vị
choice viands; choice delicacies; luxury gourmet food
sướng chết đi được
So good you could die — the cry for luck too sweet to bear.
sảy cha còn chú
Lose father, uncle remains — the middle link of the kin-shelter chain.
sảy cha còn chú, sảy mẹ bú dì
Lose father, uncle remains; lose mother, nurse at auntie's — the kin-chain that catches the orphan.
sảy chú bú dì
Lose the uncle, nurse at auntie's — the last link in the old chain of family shelter.
sảy mẹ bú dì
Losing mother, nursed by aunt — orphaned into the next-best arms.
sảy mẹ còn cha
Lose mother, father remains — the family's chain of shelter: father, then uncle, then aunt.
sẩm vào cuội ra
The rich eat; the poor endure — the same table, two experiences.
sẩm vớ được gậy
The blind minstrel finds a staff — the needed thing arriving in the neediest hand.
sập nguồn
Powered off like a dead phone — a human shutting down from exhaustion: face-first into bed, unreachable till morning.
sắc
(adjective) sharp (able to cut easily)
sắp tới chưa
"Almost there yet?" — the backseat question; also the standard nudge to a late friend ("sắp tới chưa đó??").
sặc cười
To choke on a laugh — hit so suddenly by something funny that you cough, snort, or spray your drink.
sẽ gầy
Sẽ gầy — punning slang ('will get thin') for same-sex intimacy between men.
sểnh nạ quạ tha
Stray from mother and the crow carries you off — the unwatched small are the taken small.
số cô chẳng giàu thì nghèo Ngày ba mươi Tết thịt treo trong nhà. Số cô có mẹ có cha Mẹ cô đàn bà, cha cô đàn ông. Số cô có vợ có chồng, sinh con đầu lòng, chẳng gái thì trai
Your fate: if not rich then poor; on Tết's eve, meat hangs in the house; you have a mother and father — mother female, father male; a spouse awaits, and your firstborn — girl if not boy — the immortal parody of fortune-tellers.
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