màn treo lưới rách cũng treo
Where curtains hang, the torn net hangs too — keeping up with appearances beyond one's station.
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Where will you be? Anywhere Hà Nội & the NorthHuế / Đà Nẵng & the CenterSài Gòn & the SouthOnline slang Bắc ↔ Nam words
màn trời chiếu đất
a situation where many people become homeless, especially after a disaster
mành treo trước gió
A bamboo blind hung in the wind — a life at the mercy of every gust.
má hồng mệnh mỏng
Rosy cheeks, thin thread of fate — the beautiful are dealt short lives and hard luck.
máu ai thâm thịt nấy
Whose blood, their flesh feels it — strike the child and the parent bleeds.
máu chẩy ruồi bâu
Where blood runs, flies gather — misfortune draws its own crowd of feeders.
máu loãng còn hơn nước lã
Thin blood still beats plain water — the faintest kinship outranks the closest stranger.
máy bay không người lái
drone; unmanned aircraft
máy bán vé đỗ xe
parking ticket machine
máy đo nồng độ cồn
breathalyzer
mâm cao cỗ đầy
High trays and full platters — hospitality at its most architectural.
mãi mận
Forever wonderful; unbreakably tight — mận puns on mặn mà (charming), keo means glue-tight.
mãn chiêu tổn, khiêm thọ ích
Pride invites loss, humility receives gain — the full cup spills first.
mèo già hoá cáo
the older someone is, the more cunning they become
mèo già hoá cáo, cáo già ra ma
An old cat turns fox, an old fox turns demon — cunning compounds with age.
mèo già thua gan chuột nhắt
An old cat outdared by a baby mouse — age and rank losing nerve before the small and bold.
mèo hay ỉa bếp
The cat that fouls the hearth — the pet vice practiced exactly where it's most offensive.
mèo khen mèo dài đuôi
cats who boast of their own long tails
mèo lành chẳng ở mả, ả lành chẳng ở hàng cơm
A good cat doesn't haunt graves; a good girl doesn't haunt food-stalls — respectability keeps clear of low resorts.
mèo lành không ở mả
A decent cat doesn't haunt the graves — respectable creatures keep respectable addresses.
mèo mù vớ cá rán
To get lucky far beyond one’s ability or effort — undeserved windfall.
mèo mả gà đồng
vagabond; hobo
mèo nhỏ bắt chuột con
A small cat catches small mice — work scaled honestly to one's size.
mèo quào không xể vách đất
Cat-scratches don't gouge an earthen wall — feeble attacks on a solid thing.
mèo thấy mỡ
The cat that saw the lard — craving with its whiskers already in the dish.
mèo uống nước bể chẳng bao giờ cạn
A cat drinking the sea will never drain it — small appetites at large supplies cost nothing.
mèo đàng chó điếm
Alley cats and rogue dogs — the disreputable at their most ambulatory.
méo mó có hơn không
Close to the English saying: “Half a loaf is better than no bread.”.
mì chính cánh
Wing-grade MSG — a rare catch of a person, precious as premium seasoning in ration days.
mình gầy xác ve
Thin as a cicada's husk — wasted away to a shell.
Mình khỏe lắm, cảm ơn. Còn bạn?
I’m very well, thanks. And you?
mình sống hơn đống vàng
A living body outweighs a heap of gold — never mourn property with your life still on.
mình về có nhớ ta chăng, ta về ta nhớ hàm răng mình cười
Gone home, will you remember me? I go home remembering the teeth of your smile — the classic parting verse.
mình ốc chẳng rửa
The snail that won't wash its own shell — quick to scrub every neighbor, never itself.
mình ở lổ, cổ đeo hoa
Naked at the waist, flowers at the throat — finery hung on indignity; priorities inverted.
mò cua bắt ốc
Groping for crabs, catching snails — the mudflat's subsistence; humble foraging for the day's meal.
mò kim đáy bể
to look for a needle in a haystack; literally "to blindly look for a needle at the bottom of the ocean"
mò trăng đáy nước
to make a hopeless, futile or vain effort at doing something; to ask for the moon
món đặc biệt trong ngày
daily specials
mô Phật
(phrase) clipping of Nam mô A Di Đà Phật
môi giới bất động sản
real estate agent
môi giới cho thuê nhà
letting agent
môn đăng hộ đối
to be well-matched in terms of socio-economic status (for purposes of marriage); to have similar family backgrounds
múa gậy vườn hoang
Swinging a staff in an abandoned garden — grand flourishes where no one contests the ground.
múa rìu mắt thợ
Swinging an axe before the carpenter's eye — expertise performed at the expert.
múa rìu qua mắt thợ
To show off a skill in front of a true master of that skill — foolish, presumptuous display.
mút chỉ cà tha
Out past the last thread's end — impossibly far; the back of beyond.
măng không uốn để ra tre uốn làm sao đặng
Bend the shoot or never bend the bamboo — correction has a season, and it is early.
mĩ nhân hồng ảnh
A beauty's rosy silhouette — the graceful figure of a lovely woman.
mũ ni che tai
A monk's bonnet over the ears — hearing switched off by choice; serene, convenient deafness.
mũi dại lái chịu đòn
The prow blunders, the helm takes the beating — the subordinate's error lands on the captain's back.
mũi tên hòn đạn
Arrowheads and bullets — the battlefield and its ever-present risk of death.
mũi vạy thì lái chịu đòn
When the prow skews, the helm takes the beating — subordinates' errors land on the leader's back.
mưa gió phải thì
Rain and wind in due season — a maiden come to marrying age, in the old delicate phrase.
mưa Sở mây Tần
Rain of Chu and clouds of Qin — lovers' trysts; shared pillows and passing passion.
mưa thuận gió hoà
Obedient rain and harmonious wind — the weather of a blessed year, in field or family.
mưu cao chẳng bằng trí dày
A tall scheme is less than a thick mind — one clever stroke loses to durable sense.
mưu con đĩ, trí học trò
The harlot's schemes, the student's wiles — the two proverbial founts of cunning.
mưu sự tại nhân, thành sự tại thiên
Things seldom turn out as you have planned.
mười năm lưu lạc giang hồ, một ngày tu tỉnh, cơ đồ lại nên
Ten years adrift on rivers and lakes; one day of mending, and the estate stands again — it is never too late to turn.