hữu quá tắc cải
Having a fault, mend it — error is only error once it's kept.
Browse Tiếng Việt 6178
All languages English Tiếng Việt
Where will you be? Anywhere Hà Nội & the NorthHuế / Đà Nẵng & the CenterSài Gòn & the SouthOnline slang Bắc ↔ Nam words
hữu sự bái tứ phương
In need, one bows to the four directions — necessity makes everyone your superior.
hữu thuỷ vô chung
to have a beginning but not an end
hữu thành tắc hữu thần
Where there is sincerity, there are the gods — devotion is what the spirits answer.
hữu thân hữu khổ
A body means burdens — to exist at all is to carry.
hữu thạnh hữu suy
Every flourishing has its fading — the tide chart of all fortune.
hữu thế bất khả ỷ tận
Never lean your whole weight on power — nor spend your whole stock of luck; keep reserves of both.
hữu xạ tự nhiên hương
"A good product does not need advertising.".
hỷ mũi chưa sạch
Nose not yet wiped clean — maturity claimed several years early.
im lặng là vàng
Staying silent is often the wisest, most valuable choice.
im lặng tức là đồng ý
Silence gives consent.
inh tai nhức óc
discordant and intolerable
j z tr
Texting abbreviation of "gì vậy trời" — "what on earth?!", an exclamation of disbelief.
khai khẩu như phá thạch
A mouth opening like stone splitting — words that land with a mason's finality.
khai môn ấp đạo
Opening the gate and bowing in the burglar — courtesy extended to one's own ruin.
khai quyển hữu ích
Opening any book profits — every volume keeps at least one useful line.
khai trương hồng phát
have a grand opening (used in congratulatory and celebratory settings)
khen Phò-mã tốt áo
Praising the Prince Consort's fine coat — flattery aimed where flattery is redundant.
khi kiến ăn cá, khi cá ăn kiến
Now the ant eats the fish, now the fish eats the ant — fortunes rotate even between the great and the tiny.
khi lành cho nhau ăn cháy, khi dữ mắng nhau cạy nồi
Fond, they share the crust; furious, they curse over the scrapings — affection swinging pot-to-pot.
khi lành quạt giấy cũng cho, khi dữ quạt mo cũng đòi
In favor, gifted the paper fan; out of favor, even the palm fan reclaimed — generosity with a repossession clause.
khi sư diệt tổ
Deceiving the master and effacing the founder — betraying one's own teacher and school.
khi và chỉ khi
when and only when
khinh nặc quả tín
Quick to promise, scarce to keep — the easy yes weighs least.
khinh sĩ mắc sĩ
Slight a scholar and be schooled by one — the shabby stranger may out-think you yet.
khoai vò mình củ
The yam polishing its own tuber — self-praise, root and skin.
khoang tắc đắc chúng
Generosity gathers the crowd — largeness of measure is what people rally to.
khom lưng uốn gối
Bowed back and bent knee — cringing servility before the powerful.
khoẻ như voi
very healthy and strong
khoẻ như vâm
as fit as a fiddle
khu bảo tồn thiên nhiên
nature reserve
khu nhà vệ sinh và phòng tắm
toilet and shower block
khuynh cái hạ mã
Tilting the parasol and dismounting — the full courtesies paid to someone deeply respected.
khuynh gia bại sản
to lose all of one’s assets, wealth, and housing; to go pear-shaped
khuê phụ oán
The chamber wife's lament — a woman aching for her absent husband.
khác máu tanh lòng
Different blood breeds fishy hearts.
khách tới nhà chẳng gà thì vịt
A guest at the door — if not chicken, then duck — hospitality that always finds something for the pot.
khát nước
(noun) chestnut-winged cuckoo (Clamator coromandus)
khéo làm tôi vụng
The skillful end up serving the clumsy — cleverness earns the work, dullness the rest.
khê hác chi tâm
A heart like a ravine — greed no filling ever levels.
khó có nhau hơn giàu một mình
Poor together beats rich alone — company is the wealth that counts.
khó giữ đầu, giầu giữ của
The poor guard their heads, the rich their goods — each defends the only thing they have.
khó muốn giầu, đau muốn đã
The poor want wealth, the sick want health — desire is always for the missing thing.
khó mới có mà ăn, ngồi không ai dễ đem phần tới cho
Only the hard-up have food — no one delivers portions to the idle; want is what gets people working.
khó nằm giữa chợ chẳng ai han, giàu ở lâm san, ghe kẻ tìm tới
Poor in the market's middle, unasked-after; rich in the deep forest, sought by boats — money, not distance, decides your visitors.
khó sạch rách thơm
Poor but clean, ragged but fragrant — integrity kept laundered whatever the wardrobe.
khóc hổ ngươi, cười ra nước mắt
Ashamed to weep, laughing out tears — caught where neither face will fit.
khóc nhè chè thiu
Whimpering over stale tea — sulky crying over nothing worth the tears.
khô cả cổ
Talked till the throat runs dry — pleading at length to ears that never open.
khô như con mắm
Dry as salted fish — desiccated; a person or prose with all the juice cured out.
khôn ba năm, dại một giờ
Even smart people can have a momentary lapse in judgement. / Even Homer sometimes nods.
khôn cho người ta giái, dại cho người ta thương
Be clever enough to be feared, or artless enough to be loved — only the in-between draws hate.
khôn chẳng qua nhẽ, khoẻ chẳng qua nhời
Cleverness yields to reason, strength to words — argument outranks both wit and muscle.
khôn một người một léo, khéo một người một ý
Each clever head its own trick, each skilled hand its own way — mastery never comes in one pattern.
khôn ngoan chẳng bằng thật thà
Cunning is no match for honesty — the straight measure outlasts every crooked one.
khôn ngoan chẳng lọ là nhiều Người khôn mới nói nửa điều đã khôn
Wisdom isn't measured by volume — the wise show wise in half a sentence.
khôn ngoan chẻ vỏ
Armed with fangs and beak — equipped to bite back; not to be handled bare.
khôn ngoan giữa đám ba bề, chớ cho ai lận chớ hề lận ai
Sharp on every side of the market — neither cheated nor cheating: that is the whole of commercial wisdom.
khôn ngoan đối đáp người ngoài Gà cùng một mẹ chớ hoài đá nhau
Be clever answering outsiders — chicks of one mother must never spar with each other — solidarity begins in the coop.
khôn nhà dại chợ
clever at home but foolish out on the street; a smart aleck among family but timid among strangers