ky-cóp cho cọp nó ăn
Scrimping and saving for the tiger to eat — a lifetime's hoard served to the predator in one sitting.
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Where will you be? Anywhere Hà Nội & the NorthHuế / Đà Nẵng & the CenterSài Gòn & the SouthOnline slang Bắc ↔ Nam words
kém duyên
Charm-deficient — jokes and comments that land wrong; tactlessness dressed as humor.
kén cá chọn canh
Picky with the fish, choosy with the soup — fastidiousness auditioning every option.
kéo cầy giả nợ
Pulling the plow to pay the debt — labor mortgaged years ahead.
kê minh cẩu đạo
Cock-crow imitators and dog-thieves — the lowly hangers-on whose small tricks save great lords, as in Mengchang's tale.
kì hậu dã bạc, kì bạc dã hậu
Generous where thrift was owed, thrifty where generosity was — kindness distributed by the wrong map.
kì phụ nhương dương, nhi tử chứng chi
The father stole the sheep and the son testified — honesty that breaks a deeper duty; kin owe each other cover.
kình thân tàm thực
The whale swallows, the silkworm nibbles — encroachment by gulp or by inch, both eat you whole.
kín cổng cao tường
Sealed gates and high walls — respectability engineered as architecture.
kín tranh hơn lành gỗ
Tight thatch beats sound timber — better a humble roof that keeps the rain out than fine beams that don't.
kính gửi
The formal letter/email opener — "respectfully addressed to" — mandatory register for officials, professors, and cover letters; never spoken aloud.
kính lão đắc thọ
if you respect the elderly, you'll extend your lifespan
kính nhi viễn chi
to respect yet keep one's distance; to respectfully distance oneself
kíp miệng, chầy chân
Quick of mouth, slow of foot — the tongue sprints where the legs won't follow.
kẹp hàng
Squeezed on the goods — trapped in a losing position you cannot exit without making the loss real; the daily condition of half the forum («kẹp từ đỉnh»).
kẹt xe quá
"Traffic's terrible" — the Sài Gòn excuse that needs no proof; Northern speech says "tắc đường" for the same misery.
Kẻ Sặt đất lề quê thói
Kẻ Sặt — where the land keeps its margins and the village its ways — a town famed for order and custom.
kẻ tham công người tiếc việc
One grudges the effort, the other the interruption — two thrifts colliding over the same task.
kẻ thâm người thù
Deep with some, cold with others — favor rationed by private ledger.
kẻ tung người hứng
One tosses, the other catches — a duet of collusion; patter perfectly rehearsed.
kẻ tám lạng, người nửa cân
Six of one, half a dozen of the other — two rivals so evenly matched there is nothing to choose between them. The scales are rigged into a draw: in the old sixteen-lạng system, tám lạng (eight lạng) IS exactly nửa cân (half a cân).
kẻ đắp chăn bông kẻ lạnh lùng
some have it all while others have nothing
kết cỏ ngậm vành
Knotting grass and holding the ring — a vow to repay deep kindness even from beyond the grave.
kề vai sát cánh
Shoulder to shoulder, wing to wing — standing and working side by side for one goal.
kỉ dụ lập nhi lập nhơn, kỉ dục đạt nhi đạt nhơn
Wishing to stand, help others stand; wishing to arrive, help others arrive — self-making by making others.
kị chỉ thử nhỉ
The donkey's one kick — a fearsome show with a single trick behind it, as the tiger discovered.
kị hổ nan hạ
Once astride the tiger, dismounting is the danger — some positions permit no graceful exit.
kỹ thuật viên vật lý trị liệu
physiotherapist
L/L
initialism of liên lạc (“to contact”)
lang tâm, cẩu hạnh
Wolf heart and cur conduct — appetite with the leash cut; shameless, predatory ways.
lanh chanh như hành không muối
Skittish as unsalted spring onion — so hasty it scatters everywhere, like onion flying off the board.
lao lực bất như lao tâm
Toil of the muscles is less than toil of the heart — worry wounds deeper than work.
lay trời dậy đất
Shaking heaven and heaving earth — an event that astonishes everyone.
lemỏn
Stuck-up, “extra” — chảnh spelled as citrus: lemon + a Vietnamese hook mark, because chảnh sounds like chanh (lemon).
liễu yếu đào tơ
a young, gentle, and fragile woman
liệu cơm gắp mắm
to be mindful of one's surroundings and circumstances to choose the right options
liệu gió phất cờ
Read the wind before waving the flag — commitment timed to the gust.
lo bò trắng răng
to needlessly worry
lo quanh lo quẩn, lo gì mà lo, lo con bò trắng răng
Worrying whether the ox's teeth are white — anxiety assigned to a problem that does not exist.
loan phượng ăn xoài
The loan and phoenix sharing mangoes — a dream of a perfectly matched union.
lom dom
Small-time and shaky — lacking skill, backbone or standing; a dismissive label for a person or operation that is not at the level: half-hearted, unserious, easy to ignore.
long trời lở đất
world-shaking; earthshattering
luật hoa quả
The “law of fruit-ma” — karma, respelled: nhân (cause/karma) also means “kernel”, so the internet swapped in fruit.
luật vua thua lệ làng
In practice, local custom outweighs distant formal authority — the village’s rules beat the king’s law.
làm bộ làm tịch
to feign; to pretend
làm chi
Central Vietnamese "what are you doing?" or rhetorical "why even?" — same grammar as standard "làm gì" with the Central "chi".
làm chẳng nên ăn
Leaning on clout and leaning on spirits — importance borrowed from every altar available.
làm công ăn lương
to work and earn, to be a salaryman
làm dâu nhà cả thể, làm rể nhà nhiều con
Daughter-in-law to a grand house, son-in-law to a house of many sons — the two hardest marriages to keep with honor.
làm giàu không khó
'Getting rich isn't hard' — the seminar-hall catchphrase of easy-wealth preachers, quoted mostly in irony.
làm gì có chuyện
A flat denial — "no such thing / no way that happened". Rejects a claim as impossible before it gets any further.
làm hoa cho người hái, làm gái cho người chơi
Born a flower, picked; born a girl, trifled with — the verse's bleak equation of beauty and use.
làm hết mình
To give it everything — total effort with nothing in reserve; the promise before the attempt and the consolation after it.
làm kiếp trâu
A buffalo's lot — born to haul; the laboring life assigned at birth.
làm lớn phải làm láo
To be big is to answer big — rank means carrying rank's troubles.
làm mướn không công
Hired labor, unpaid — the wage that evaporates between promise and payday.
làm người phải đắn phải đo Phải cân nặng nhẹ, phải dò nông sâu
To be a person is to measure and weigh — balance heavy against light, sound the shallow and the deep.
làm phúc phải tội
Do a kindness, catch a charge — philanthropy billed as the crime.
làm quan thì dễ, làm thể thì khó
Becoming an official is easy; becoming worthy of it is hard — the office arrives faster than the dignity.
làm quen được không
"Can we get to know each other?" — the classic, slightly formal way to introduce yourself to a stranger you'd like to know; sincere, not sleazy.
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