lấy gậy chọc giời
Poking heaven with a stick — protest scaled hopelessly beneath its target.
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Where will you be? Anywhere Hà Nội & the NorthHuế / Đà Nẵng & the CenterSài Gòn & the SouthOnline slang Bắc ↔ Nam words
lấy ngao lường biển
Measuring the sea with a clamshell — ambition uncalibrated to its instrument.
lấy thúng úp voi
Hiding an elephant under a basket — concealment outsized by its secret.
lấy thịt đè người
Hair growing in the belly — cunning gone visceral; schemes bred in the gut.
lấy trứng chọi đá
to overestimate one's capabilities; to attack a stronger opponent as the weaker side which is sure to end in failure
lấy vợ kiêng tuổi đàn-bà, làm nhà kiêng tuổi đàn-ông
Marry by her age, build by his — the almanac's division of labor for the two great undertakings.
lấy độc trị độc
to treat poison with poison
lật cánh đánh đầu
Flip the wing, strike the head — working a thing over minutely to squeeze the best from it.
lắm duyên nhiều nợ
Much charm, many debts — every attachment opens an account.
lắm mối tối nằm không
If you run after two hares, you'll catch none.
lắm thầy thối ma
Taking advice from too many people ruins the outcome — conflicting guidance confuses everything.
lặn mất tăm
To vanish without a trace — go silent, ghost everyone, disappear from the group chat.
lặn ngòi ngoi nước
Diving the creeks and surfacing the shallows — slogging through every hardship of the road.
lặng như tờ
Still as a sheet of paper — a hush with no edge to it.
lễ thuận nhơn tình
Ritual must follow human feeling — ceremony serves the heart, or it serves nothing.
lịch sử đi bạn ơi
'Lịch sử đi bạn ơi' — a soft-toned pun on 'lịch sự đi bạn ơi': mind your manners, friend.
lịnh làng nào làng ấy đánh, thánh làng nào làng ấy thờ
Each village beats its own summons, each village worships its own saint — jurisdiction ends at the bamboo hedge.
lịnh ông cồng bà
His lordship's gong against her ladyship's — a contest over who really rules the house.
lịnh ông không bằng cồng bà
His lordship's order is less than her ladyship's gong — the household's real chain of command.
lọt sàng xuống nia
What slips the sieve lands in the flat-basket — nothing lost within the family; the spill stays in the house.
lọt vào mắt xanh
to strike someone's fancy
lỗi thầy mực sách, cứ mạch mà cưa
Blame the master's crooked ink-line, but saw along the grain — bad instruction is no license for bad work.
lộn mề gà
Turned inside-out like a gizzard — the torturer's art of beating a prisoner hollow; brutal colonial-era torture.
lộng giả thành chân
fantasy becomes reality
lời chào cao hơn mâm cỗ
always be courteous in any situation
lời nói chẳng mất tiền mua, lựa lời mà nói cho vừa lòng nhau
Words cost nothing to buy — so choose the ones that please each other's hearts — the golden rule of Vietnamese speech.
lời nói không đi đôi với việc làm
The person referred to in the proverb is a hypocrite; he says one thing but does another.
lời nói là bạc, im lặng là vàng
Speech is silver, silence is gold.
lời ong tiếng ve
unfounded rumours and malicious gossip
lỡ bước sang ngang
A missed step onto the crossing ferry — a woman resigning herself to a late or lesser marriage.
lợi bất cập hại
The gain never covers the damage — profit posted, loss footnoted larger.
lợn nhà gà chợ
Buy the pig at the farm, the hen at the market — where to buy each thing to choose it well.
lửa gần dát mặt
Like a machete into earth — words or deeds that land once and stay.
lửa gần rơm lâu ngày cũng bén
Two people kept close together will eventually develop feelings — proximity kindles attraction.
lửa thử vàng, gian nan thử sức
fire tests gold, hardship tests strength
lực bất tòng tâm
So much to do, so little done.
ma bắt coi mặt người ta
Even ghosts check the face before they seize — bullies read their victim first.
ma chê quỉ hờn
Living straight and speaking true — the plain rule of an honest life.
ma cũ nạt ma mới
The old ghost hazes the new ghost — seniority's bullying, even among spirits.
ma không thương người ốm, kẻ-trộm không thương nhà nghèo
Ghosts don't pity the sick, thieves don't pity the poor — predators keep no exemptions for the pitiable.
ma ăn cỗ
any act carried out so clandestinely and secretly that all traces are erased, especially illicit affairs
mai gặp nhé
"See you tomorrow" — the everyday parting between classmates and colleagues; Southern speech ends it in "nha".
mai đẹt ti ni
“My destiny” — fated love, pronounced the way a Thai drama made famous.
Man Đần
(proper noun, football slang, derogatory) Manchester United — rival fans' pun replacing "Man U" with "đần" (dimwitted); standard-issue Vietnamese football banter.
mang con bỏ chợ
synonym of đem con bỏ chợ
mang về
Takeaway — "to carry home"; the counter question is "ăn ở đây hay mang về?" (for here or to go?).
manh nhơn kị hạt mã, hắc dạ lâm thâm trì
A blind man on a blind horse, midnight at the deep pond's edge — recklessness stacked to its logical end.
may hơn khôn
Luck beats brains — the winner's shrug and the loser's consolation.
mi thanh mục tú
Fine brows and comely eyes — a delicately handsome face.
minh tâm khắc cốt
engraved in one's heart and carved on one's bones
miá sâu có đốt, nhà dột có nơi
Borers pick their cane-joint, leaks pick their spot — faults are located things; find the segment, find the culprit.
miếng ngon nhớ lâu, nhời đau nhớ đời
The delicious is remembered long; the wounding word, for life — the tongue's two aftertastes.
miếng thịt là miếng nhục
A morsel of meat is a morsel of shame — the pun that prices every begged mouthful (thịt reads as nhục, 'disgrace').
miếng trầu là đầu câu chuyện
paan is a conversation starter
miễn chê
"Beyond criticism" — quality so solid complaint is exempt; the reviewer's highest shrug of approval.
miệng có thép
A mouth lined with steel — speech that cuts on contact.
miệng hùm, gan sứa
If you cannot bite, never show your teeth.
miệng khôn chôn dại
A wise mouth buries a foolish one — speech saves what silence would have sunk, and vice versa.
miệng kẻ sang có gang có thép
A grandee's mouth carries cast iron and steel — the powerful speak in enforceable metal.
miệng lưỡi thế gian
The world's mouths and tongues — public gossip and the judgment of strangers.
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