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Where will you be? Anywhere Hà Nội & the NorthHuế / Đà Nẵng & the CenterSài Gòn & the SouthOnline slang Bắc ↔ Nam words
The three domestic miseries, ranked: a foolish spouse, a leaky roof, a blunt machete — the folk list of everyday torments a man grumbles he cannot escape. A relic of its era about marriage, quoted today mostly for the comic ranking.
Late to bed, early to rise — industry measured in lost sleep.
Stay up late and learn how long the night is; live with someone long and learn whether their heart is kind — duration is the only test.
to fish in troubled waters
Riding the wind, breaking the waves — ambition under full sail.
The mouse into the granary — landed amid plenty, the Sino-Vietnamese cousin of the mouse in the rice jar.
"Can I try it?" — clothes, shoes, a taste at the market; permission-first plus a smile opens every fitting room.
Food that never fills the gut — poverty measured at the stomach.
Bowed torso and bended knee — servility in its full Sino-Vietnamese dress.
Slit eel's eyes — the narrow gaze folk wisdom assigns to the untrustworthy.
So awful even ghosts complain and demons sulk — repellent past the supernatural's own standards.
Trust a friend, lose a wife — the proverb's grimmest audit of misplaced confidence.
Trust the rogue, lose the ox — confidence invested at the predictable address.
to take something (usually a fraudulent claim) as a matter of fact without further inspection; to be too credulous
Crestfallen as a cat with a cropped ear — deflation you can see from across the yard.
The first-awakened wake the later — whoever sees earlier owes the seeing.
learn manners first, then learn literature
First come, then arrived — precedence by order of appearance; the queue as law.
Congenitally insufficient — frail from birth; weak in one's very constitution.
First the host, then the guest — precedence at the door, deference at the table.
Judge yourself before judging others — your own case is always first on the docket.
Pity the pearl-white grain of rice — washed in muddy water, then rolled in straw-char — worth spoiled by wrong handling.
Regret that tears the gut — remorse with physical symptoms.
it's difficult either to advance or to retreat.
Good news travels far; bad news travels three days' road faster — reputation's two speeds.
The voice of silk and bronze — the sound of stringed music; an old name for the zither's song.
Two-faced as a lead coin — brazenness stamped on both sides.
Rice and money are mother's and father's; the inkstone and brush are truly mine — the scholar-child's declaration of estate.
Fierce at first, kind at last — the storm that clears into a good ending.
Before and after never matching — a story, or a person, inconsistent with itself.
Money in Đọc, rice in Nhữ, letters in Chằm — three villages, three forms of wealth.
wasting money in something potentially devious in hope of a return but only ends up in a worse off state
Close to the English saying: “If you buy cheaply, you pay dearly.”.
Money lies still, interest runs — capital asleep while its offspring sprint.
First rich, later poor — fortunes, like some builds, front-loaded.
Front-line service to redeem a fault — sent ahead into battle to earn back one's name.
Forest of money, sea of silver — wealth in landscape units.
The master's fee goes straight in the pocket — paid regardless of the cure.
rice congee upon payment
Cash across, chicken in hand — payment and goods exchanged in the same motion, credit extended to no one.
When money runs out, kindness and duty end — the friendships that were denominated in cash expire with it.
Money is powdered earth; decency is a thousand gold — the exchange rate the market never posts.
The front advances, the rear presses on — as old bamboo falls, shoots rise; the column never runs out of people.
Money kept home is money pregnant; money out the door is money giving birth — capital multiplies only in circulation.
The small man got his wish — petty ambition is soonest satisfied, and insufferable after.
Small things unborne wreck great designs — the grand plan dies of a petty flare.
A small boat can't bear heavy cargo — capacity is a hull; load past it and sink.
Borrowed “thanks” — thank you, keyboard-sized.
Big-headed and still foolish — grown in size, not in sense.
Toxic — a coded respelling of the English word, with the digit 6 standing in for the "-xic" ending; said of poisonous people, relationships, or vibes, partly to slip past content filters.
with all of one's heart; completely dedicated
A man jilting his bride loses goods down the river; a bride jilting her groom repays it double — the old betrothal penalty table.
A wise man picks his wife in the crowded market; a wise woman picks her husband amid the ranks of soldiers — choose where character shows.
What matters boy, what matters girl — a child of duty and gratitude is the better birth — the verse against preferring sons.
Talented men and beautiful women — the classical matched pair; each sex graded on its old currency.
Striking poses and arranging appearances — performance in place of substance.
Texting shortcut for “trước” — before / first. “đi trc nha” = heading out first.
when bamboos grow old, young shoots spring up
The bamboo weeps for the shoot — a parent burying a child; grief in the wrong order.
Young bamboo bends easily — training is a property of greenness.