có quyền thì có duyên
Power comes with charm attached — office lends its holder a strange attractiveness.
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Where will you be? Anywhere Hà Nội & the NorthHuế / Đà Nẵng & the CenterSài Gòn & the SouthOnline slang Bắc ↔ Nam words
có rau ăn rau, có cháo ăn cháo
Greens if there are greens, gruel if there's gruel — contentment eating whatever the day put out.
có ship không
"Do you deliver?" — borrowed "ship" is now core Vietnamese commerce; the answer decides everything.
có sức ăn có sức chịu
Eat to your strength, answer to your strength — enjoy what you can stand behind.
có sừng có mỏ
Armed with horns and a beak — formidable; not someone to be trifled with.
có thân có khổ
To have a body is to have suffering — hardship comes bundled with existence; the newborn's first cry says so.
có thịt đòi sôi
Given meat, demanding sticky rice — appetite that answers generosity with an order.
có thực mới vực được đạo
Having food (energy/money) is the prerequisite to achieve anything.
có tiếng mà không có miếng
The name without the mouthful — credited with a share that never reaches the plate.
có tiền buôn Đông, không tiền buôn Thái
With money, trade in Đông; without, trade in Thái — commerce sorted by the size of your purse.
có tiền mua tiên cũng được
Money makes things easier.
có tiền mua tiên cũng được, không tiền mua lược cũng không
With money you can buy a fairy; without it, not even a comb — cash's range, measured end to end.
có tiền tiên hay múa
With money, even the fairies dance — coin commands performances from heaven itself.
có trí làm quan, có gan làm giầu
Wits make the mandarin, nerve makes the fortune — each summit has its own entry fee.
có tài có tật
Talent travels with its flaw — the gifted carry their vices in the same hand.
có tát cạn biển Đông mới tỏ tường lòng mẹ Không trèo qua non Thái sao thấu hiểu tình cha
Only by bailing the East Sea dry is a mother's heart made plain; without climbing Mount Thái, how fathom a father's love — filial devotion at oceanic scale.
có tật giật mình
He who excuses himself, accuses himself.
có vinh có nhục
Honor comes paired with disgrace — the higher road carries both.
có ít xít nên nhiều
A little, squeezed, becomes a lot — small facts inflated by the telling.
có đi có lại
A going deserves a coming — favors keep a return schedule.
có đôi có cặp
in some promising romantic relationship into a fulfilling family
có đầu có đuôi
With a head and a tail — told whole, in proper order.
cóc bôi vôi
A toad daubed with lime — marked once, remembered everywhere it hops.
cóc đi guốc
A toad in clogs — lowly feet strapped into borrowed refinement.
cô hồn cát đảng
A wandering-ghost gang — lawless drifters; the crowd beyond the law's edge.
cô kia cắt cỏ một mình, cho anh cắt với chung tình làm đôi. Cô còn cắt nữa hay thôi, cho anh cắt với làm đôi vợ chồng
You there cutting grass alone — let me cut beside you and make us a pair — the field as courtship ground.
cô kia đội nón đi đâu Tôi là phận gái làm dâu mới về Mẹ chồng ác nghiệt đã ghê Tôi chẳng ở được, tôi về nhà tôi
Girl in the nón, where to? — I'm a new bride gone to serve; the mother-in-law is cruel past bearing — I can't stay, I'm going home to mine — the runaway daughter-in-law's verse.
cô âm bất thành, cô dương bất trưởng
Yin alone forms nothing, yang alone grows nothing — creation takes the pair.
cô ơi
Calling a woman of your parents' generation — the market auntie, the landlady, a teacher. Warmer than formal, exactly right for the age gap.
công cha nghĩa mẹ
parents' kindness; parental affection
công cha như núi ngất trời Nghĩa mẹ như nước ở ngoài biển Đông Núi cao biển rộng mênh mông Cù lao chín chữ ghi lòng con ơi
A father's labor is a sky-high peak; a mother's love the water beyond the East Sea — high mountain, wide ocean: child, engrave the nine words of care.
công cha như núi Thái Sơn, nghĩa mẹ như nước trong nguồn chảy ra, một lòng thờ mẹ kính cha, cho tròn chữ hiếu mới là đạo con
A father's labor is Mount Thái Sơn; a mother's devotion, the spring that never stops flowing — serve both wholly, for that is a child's whole way.
công chính liêm minh
Just, upright, clean-handed and clear-sighted — integrity in office.
công cốc
something that one has put a lot of effort into but yields no real result
công giả trường
Toil of the sand-crab — labor the next wave undoes; building what the sea flattens nightly.
công nợ khất quanh
Debt walked around the block — repayment forever circling, never arriving.
công thành danh toại
merits accomplished, fame/honor achieved
công ty môi giới bất động sản
real-estate agency
cõng chữ lên non
to go to a remote, mountainous and underdeveloped area to do voluntary teaching
cõng rắn cắn gà nhà
To bring in an outsider or enemy who then harms your own people — inviting the wolf into the house.
cù bất cù bơ
Drifting rootless — homeless, familyless, blown from place to place.
cùng mẹ thì xa, cùng cha thì gần
Same father makes near kin; same mother only, farther — the old patriline's map of closeness.
cùng nghề đương thúng, túng nghề đương nia
Out of the basket trade, weave winnowing trays — when one craft starves, bend it into the next.
cùng tắc biến, biến tắc thông
When the going gets tough, the tough gets going.
cú kêu cho ma
The owl cries for the ghost — omen and spirit keeping each other's appointments.
cú kêu dữ miệng cú
The owl's cry curses the owl's own mouth — the bringer of ill omens keeps the ill.
căn nhà nghỉ dưỡng cho thuê
holiday rental; vacation rental
căng da bụng, chùng da mắt
having a full belly can make one sleepy
căng đét
Stretched drum-tight — a situation, deadline, or atmosphere at maximum tension; "đét" is the snap that pushes "căng" (tense) to its limit.
cũ người mới ta
Old to them, new to us — one owner's castoff is the next one's prize.
cũng không tệ lắm
Could be worse; not too bad
cũng tàm tạm
So-so; not too bad
cơ mưu bất mật họa tiên phát
A plot kept loosely brings the disaster home first — the leaky scheme detonates on its maker.
cơ thâm họa diệc thâm
The deeper the scheme, the deeper the ruin — malice digs its own grave to measure.
cơm bưng tận miệng
Rice carried to the very mouth — service so complete the jaw alone is left employed.
cơm cha, áo mẹ, chữ thầy
Father's rice, mother's clothes, teacher's letters — the three debts every childhood runs up.
cơm chó
Dog food, figuratively — the couple sweetness that single onlookers get force-fed when lovers flaunt their romance; you «ăn» (eat) it whether you ordered it or not. Borrowed from Chinese internet slang.
cơm chẳng lành, canh chẳng ngọt
rice isn't well cooked, broths aren't well seasoned
cơm cá giả mặt bụt
Rice and fish to placate the Buddha's face — offerings for appearance's sake only.
cơm hẩm áo manh
Musty rice and threadbare clothes — a life of hungry, ragged poverty.
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