làm ruộng ăn cơm nằm, để tằm ăn cơm đứng
The farmer eats lying down; the silkworm-keeper eats standing up — one calendar allows rest, the other never.
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Where will you be? Anywhere Hà Nội & the NorthHuế / Đà Nẵng & the CenterSài Gòn & the SouthOnline slang Bắc ↔ Nam words
làm răng
Central Vietnamese for "how? / what to do?" — "răng" is the Central question word for "sao", so this asks how something happened or how to handle it.
làm thần đất ta, làm ma đất người
A god on home soil, a ghost on foreign — talent's rank drops at the border.
làm thủ tục trực tuyến
to check in online
làm trai cho đáng nên trai, khom lưng chống gối gánh hai hạt vừng
Be a man worth the name: back bowed, knees braced — to carry two sesame seeds — the mock-epic of the useless husband.
làm trai lấy được vợ hiền, như cầm đồng tiền mua được của ngon
Marry a virtuous wife and it's a coin that buys good things forever — the husband's bargain of a lifetime.
làm trai quyết chí tu thân, công danh chớ vội, nợ nần chớ lo
Resolve to perfect yourself first, young man — no rush toward fame, no fretting over debts.
làm trâu làm ngựa
to work diligently and submissively
làm đĩ chín phương, để một phương lấy chồng
Work nine directions; keep one for marrying — even the most compromised life reserves one clean quarter.
làm ơn mắc oán
benefactors often get hatred from beneficiaries; no good deed goes unpunished
làm ơn được nên ơn
Live generously, meet generosity — the open hand is answered in kind.
làng Châu Khê tay vàng tay bạc
Châu Khê village, hands of gold and silver — the jewelers' hamlet named by its craft.
lành làm gáo, vỡ làm môi
Whole, it's a dipper; broken, a ladle — every state of the gourd still serves.
lành làm thúng lủng làm mê
Sound, a basket; holed, a sieve-mat — worked in every state, discarded in none.
lành như bụt
Gentle as the Buddha — mildness past provocation.
lành ăn dễ khiến
Scolded in anger, loved in silence — the household's two dialects of care.
lá lành đùm lá rách
the strong protect the weak
lá rụng về cội
The falling leaf returns to the root — children find their way back to their parents; all things home to their origin.
lánh nặng tìm nhẹ
Dodging the heavy, courting the light — laziness with a selection policy.
láu tôm láu cá
Shrimp-sly and fish-sly — full of petty cunning at every turn.
lâm khát nhi quật tỉnh
Digging the well only when thirst arrives — provision postponed until it's no longer provision.
lâu ngày dầy kén
Long days thicken the cocoon — time compounds whatever is quietly accumulating.
lâu quá không gặp
"Long time no see" — near word-for-word, and used exactly the same way; the reunion opener.
lão bạn sanh châu
The old oyster yields the pearl — a child born to aging parents; late fruit, rare and prized.
lão bất tử, lão thành tặc
Old and deathless turns bandit — the mischievous jest at elders who outlive their dignity.
lão lai tài tận
Age arrives, talent departs — the wit wears out on the same schedule as the knees.
lão mã tri đạo
The old horse knows the road — experience navigates where cleverness is lost.
lão ngô lão dĩ cập nhơn chi lão, ấu ngô ấu dĩ cập nhơn chi ấu
Honor your own elders outward to all elders; cherish your own young outward to all young — kinship as a widening circle.
lèm bà lèm bèm
Mumbling drivel — words in quantity, meaning in none.
lên non cho biết non cao Xuống biển cầm sào cho biết cạn sâu
Climb the mountain to know its height; go down to the sea with a pole to learn shallow from deep — knowledge is bodily.
lên non mới biết non cao, nuôi con mới biết công lao mẹ hiền
Climb the mountain to know its height; raise a child to know a gentle mother's labor — scale learned only firsthand.
lên voi xuống chó
to have ups and downs in one's life; to go from rags to riches and/or riches to rags; to move up and down the socioeconomic ladder
lên xu hướng
To hit the trending tab — when a clip or topic breaks into the platform's trending list and the numbers go vertical.
lênh đênh qua cửa Thần Phù Khéo tu thì nổi, vụng tu thì chìm
Adrift past Thần Phù strait — the well-cultivated float, the ill-cultivated sink — virtue as seamanship.
lòng vả lòng sung
A fig's heart knows the sycamore's — judge another's feelings by your own; both fruits hide the same flower.
lóc thịt lột da
To carve off flesh and strip away skin — repaying one's very body to its givers, like Nezha to his parents.
lót dép ngồi hóng
Sandal down, settling in to watch — pulling up a front-row seat to other people's drama.
lôi thôi lếch thếch
Rumpled and trailing — untidy, disheveled, clothes every which way.
lú luôn
Brain-scrambled — "lú" is the Gen-Z word for confused beyond function; "lú luôn" is the moment comprehension officially leaves.
lý bất cập thế
Reason loses to power — right argued from weakness is overruled; the orphan swallows the logic too.
lưng chữ cụ, vú chữ tâm
A back like the character cụ, a bosom like tâm — the fortune-teller's marks of a prosperous wife.
lưu kim tuế nguyệt
Golden years flowing on in fame — a name left sweet for all time.
lươn chê chạch dài đuôi
The eel calling the loach long-tailed — critique from a mirror-image; the unwashed judging the unwashed.
lươn ngắn chạch dài
The eel is short, the loach long — comparing lengths between creatures built differently.
lương y như từ mẫu
a good physician is like a loving and caring mother
lười chảy thây
extremely lazy, as if one's body were about to rot, with no life signals
lườm rau gắp thịt
Glaring at the greens while picking at the meat — feints that misdirect what you're really after.
lường thân tráo đầu chẳng qua đong đầy
All the rigged measures never beat one honest full scoop — trickery loses to plain fair dealing.
lưỡi không xương
The tongue has no bones — so it bends to any shape convenient.
lưỡi sắc hơn gươm
The tongue cuts sharper than the sword — words wound past any blade's reach.
lưỡng bại câu thương
both sides loses
lạ gì
whatever being discussed about is not strange or unfamiliar; I'm not unfamiliar with the fact that; everyone knows that
lạc đàng nắm đuôi chó, lạc ngỏ nắm đuôi trâu
Lost on the road, follow the dog's tail; lost in the lanes, the buffalo's — beasts remember the way their masters forgot.
lạnh như đồng
Cold as bronze — chill without a flicker of feeling.
lạnh quá
"So cold" — Hà Nội's winter refrain, said through scarves; the South borrows it for aggressive air-conditioning.
lạt mềm buộc chặt
apply gentle affection to strengthen a bond; don't be overbearing; you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar (especially romantically)
lạy ông tôi ở bụi này
'Kind sir, I'm hiding in this bush!' — giving yourself away in the very act of hiding.
lấp sông lấp giếng ai lấp được miệng
Dam the river, cap the well — but who dams a mouth — gossip is the one flood without an engineering solution.
lấy của mà che thân
Wealth exists to shield the body — spend it before it spends you; goods serve the owner, not the reverse.
lấy dạ tiểu nhân đo lòng quân tử
to be cynical; to be skeptical of the integrity, sincerity, or motives of others; to psychologically project
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