giở mặt như bàn tay
Flipping the face like flipping a palm — allegiance reversed in one wrist-turn.
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Where will you be? Anywhere Hà Nội & the NorthHuế / Đà Nẵng & the CenterSài Gòn & the SouthOnline slang Bắc ↔ Nam words
giữ mồm giữ miệng
Guarding mouth and lips — watching one's words to stay out of trouble.
giữa đường đứt gánh
to give up halfway through a task; (of love) to be unfinished
GTVT
initialism of giao thông vận tải (“traffic and transport”)
gà chết vì tiếng gáy
The rooster dies of its own crowing — boasting is what brings the knife.
gà cậy gần chuồng
The hen is bold near her coop — bravery within sprinting distance of safety.
gà ghét nhau một tiếng gáy
Roosters hate each other over one crow — grudges seeded by a single note of precedence.
gà gáy gở
A rooster crowing at the wrong hour — the classic ill omen.
gà khôn gà chẳng đá lang Gái khôn gái chẳng bỏ làng gái đi
A wise rooster doesn't spar with the flock; a wise girl doesn't quit her village — prudence keeps its home ground.
gà mất mẹ
A chick that lost the mother hen — cheeping in circles; any charge suddenly unled.
gà mọc lông măng
The chick sprouting its first down — youth at its most confident and least fledged.
gà mọc đuôi tôm
A chicken sprouting a shrimp's tail — the upstart's first small flourish.
gà đẻ rồi gà tục tác,
The hen lays, then cackles the alarm — doing the deed and raising the cry, as if another did it.
gái bán hoa
working girl; female prostitute; literally "flower-selling girl"
gái có chồng như gông đeo cổ
A married woman wears the cangue at her neck — the old verse's grim portrait of wifehood.
gái giống cha giàu ba họ, trai giống mẹ khó ba đời
A daughter like her father enriches three clans; a son like his mother beggars three generations — the old cross-resemblance arithmetic.
gái hơn hai, giai hơn một
A wife older by two, a husband by one — the folk formula for a matched pair.
gái khôn trai dỗ, lâu buồn cũng xiêu
Even a sensible girl, courted long enough, leans — persistence outlasts prudence.
gái không chồng như thuyền không lái
A woman unmarried is a boat without a rudder — so ran the old verse, steering by husband.
gái ngoan làm quan cho chồng
A capable wife holds office for her husband — running the household so well she governs his standing too.
gái tham tài trai tham sắc
Women covet means, men covet looks — desire's oldest division of labor.
gái tứ chiếng
A woman of the four garrisons — the drifting demimonde of the old towns.
gánh bàn độc mướn
Carrying the altar-table for hire — shouldering solemn burdens that were never yours.
gánh cực mà đổ lên non, cong lưng mà chạy, cực còn theo sau
Haul your misery up the mountain and dump it; bend your back and run — misery still follows behind.
gánh team
To carry the team — doing everyone’s share while teammates spectate.
gánh vàng vào kho
Hauling gold into the treasury — labor whose whole profit lands in official vaults.
gánh vã buôn thuyền
Plowing for hire, hoeing for wages — the landless day's labor, sold field by field.
gây thù chuốc oán
Sowing feuds and buying grudges — making enemies whose hatred comes back on you.
gây tê ngoài màng cứng
to administer an epidural; epidural anesthesia
gãi đúng chỗ ngứa
Scratching right where it itches — hitting exactly what someone was hoping for.
gãi đầu gãi tai
Scratching head and ear — squirming over something awkward to say or solve.
gét gô
Bring it on.
gìa lăm gìa hỏng
Count on it hard and watch it miss — what's banked on never lands; the accidental arrives instead.
gìa sanh tật, đất sanh cỏ
Age sprouts infirmities as soil sprouts weeds — the years plant what they please.
gò bồng đảo
The mounds of the Isles of Bliss — a woman's breasts, in Hồ Xuân Hương's sly classical geography.
gòy soq
Cutesy texting spelling of "rồi xong" — "welp, that's it, it's over", said with mock resignation.
góc bể chân trời
Sea-corners and sky's edge — the far ends of the earth; immeasurable distance.
gót chân A-sin
Achilles heel; weakness
gông đeo cổ
A cangue around the neck — a burden locked on that goes everywhere you do.
gươm cầm đằng chuôi
Holding the sword by the hilt — advantage secured at the handle end.
gươm hai lưỡi
A two-edged sword — help and harm sharing one blade.
gươm kề cổ
A sword at the neck — persuasion by proximity of blade.
gươm đàn quảy gánh
A sword, a lute and a carrying-pole — the free-roaming life of the wandering artist.
gương tày liếp
A warning big as a bamboo screen — a predecessor's failure hung up where none can miss it.
gương vỡ lại lành
a situation where a couple reunites after their break-up or divorce
gạn đục khơi trong
separate the wheat from the chaff
gạo châu củi quế
Rice dear as pearls, firewood dear as cinnamon — the market at famine prices.
gạo đã thành cơm
The rice is already cooked — what's done has set and cannot be uncooked.
gảy đòn gánh giữa đường
The carrying-pole snapping mid-road — a marriage broken in its middle years.
gấu bự
Big bear — an extra-sized (or extra-beloved) boyfriend/girlfriend; “gấu” is the classic slang for one’s S.O.
gần chùa gọi bụt bằng anh
to treat somebody, especially a superior, overly casually due to familiarity
gần mực thì đen, gần đèn thì sáng
You take on the character of the company you keep — bad company corrupts, good company uplifts.
gần nhà xa ngõ
Near by houses, far by lanes — neighbors the map calls close and the path calls distant.
gần đàng xa ngõ
Near by the road, far by the gate — neighbors in distance, strangers in visits.
gần đất xa trời
to have one foot in the grave; to be dying; to be close to death
gậy bà đập lưng bà
Grandma's own stick lands on grandma's back — the weapon returning to its owner.
gậy ông đập lưng ông
Close to the English saying: “Hoist with his own petard.”.
gắng công mài sắt, chầy ngày nên kim
Grind the iron long enough and it becomes a needle — patience is the whole of the craft.
gắp lửa bỏ tay người
to pass the buck; to weasel out; to slander
gắt như mắm tôm
easily irritable