mấy giờ đóng cửa
"What time do you close?" — ask it early; the answer decides whether tonight's plan survives.
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Where will you be? Anywhere Hà Nội & the NorthHuế / Đà Nẵng & the CenterSài Gòn & the SouthOnline slang Bắc ↔ Nam words
mấy đời bánh đúc có xương, mấy đời dì ghẻ lại thương con chồng
When did rice-cake ever have bones; when did a stepmother ever love her husband's child — the bitterest of family proverbs.
mần chi
Rural Central–Southern "doing what?" — "mần" is the folksy pronunciation of "làm" (to do), giving the question a countryside warmth.
mật mỡ đỡ đứa vụng
Honey and fat rescue the clumsy cook — rich ingredients forgive poor hands.
mật ngọt chết ruồi
sweet words are poison; a honey tongue, a heart of gall
mật ít ruồi nhiều
Little honey, many flies — demand entirely out of scale with supply.
mắc gì
Southern "why on earth...?" — half question, half protest, when someone's behavior makes no sense to you.
mắt chữ O mồm chữ A
to be shocked; to be gobsmacked
mắt phượng mày ngài
Phoenix eyes and silkworm brows — the classical specification of a beautiful face.
mặt chay mày đá
A fasting face over stone brows — impassivity past embarrassing.
mặt cắt không còn giọt máu
A face drained of its last drop of blood — white with terror.
mặt dày bánh đúc
A face thick as rice cake — brazen; armored against all shame.
mặt dày mày dạn
shameless; barefaced
mặt hoa da phấn
A flower face and powdered skin — fresh, silken feminine beauty.
mặt ngang mũi dọc
A level face and a straight nose — presentable; nothing to apologize for.
mặt phấn mồm son
Powdered face and rouged mouth — a woman all surface, painted for display.
mặt trơ như mặt thớt
A face blank as a chopping block — shameless; impervious to embarrassment.
mặt xanh nanh vàng
Green face and yellow fangs — the physiognomy of menace, or of ruinously hard living.
mặt xám mày xanh
Mistletoe crowding the branch — the guest outgrowing its host.
mẹ chồng không ai nói tốt nàng dâu, nàng dâu không ai nói tốt mẹ chồng
No one speaks well of the daughter-in-law to the mother-in-law, nor of the mother-in-law to the bride — the household's oldest cold front.
mẹ già như chuối chín cây, gió lay mẹ rụng, con phải mồ côi
An aged mother is a banana ripe on the tree — one gust and she falls, and the child is orphaned — cherish her while the stem holds.
mẹ già ở tấm lều tranh Sớm thăm tối viếng mới đành dạ con
An old mother in a thatched lean-to — visit at dawn and again at dusk, or a child's heart cannot rest.
mẹ gà con vịt chít chiu, mấy đời mẹ ghẻ nưng niu con chồng
Mother hen, duckling brood — when has a stepmother doted on the husband's child; mismatched care, thinly given.
mẹ nuôi con bằng giời bằng bể, con nuôi mẹ con kể từng ngày
A mother feeds her child by the sky and sea; the child feeds its mother counting the days — devotion downstream, arithmetic upstream.
mẹ tròn con vuông
round mother, squared baby
mềm nặn rắn buông
Soft, they mold you; hard, they let go — the world kneads the pliant and drops the firm.
mễ châu tân quế
Rice dear as pearls, firewood dear as cinnamon — famine prices; the cost of bare survival gone mad.
mệt rứa
A Central groan of weariness — "so tiring / what a drag". The "rứa" turns an ordinary complaint into unmistakably Central speech.
mọc lông trong bụng
Long strength and broad shoulders — youth built for carrying; and expected to.
mọc sừng
to be cuckolded (by one's wife)/cuckqueaned (by one's husband); to be cheated on (by one's spouse)
mọt dân hại quốc
Termites of the people, blight of the state — officials who eat the beams they were hired to guard.
mỏng môi hay hớt
Thin lips love to blab — physiognomy's warning label for gossips.
mống dài trời lụt, mống cụt trời mưa
A long rainbow floods, a stubby one rains — the farmer's sky-reading rule.
mồ coi cha níu chơn chú, mồ côi mẹ tríu vú dì
Fatherless, cling to uncle's leg; motherless, to auntie's breast — the kin the orphan is owed.
mỗi cây mỗi hoa, mỗi nhà mỗi cảnh
Different trees have different flowers; different families have different situations. / Every family goes through its own problems.
mỗi người một nẻo
to each his own (every person is entitled to his or her personal preferences and tastes)
mỗi thời, mỗi cách
Other times, other ways.
mỗi đêm con thắp đèn trời Cầu cho cha mẹ sống đời với con
Each night I light a lamp to heaven, praying my parents live alongside me forever — the child's nightly petition.
một bà hai ông
One madam, two masters — a household arithmetic guaranteed to quarrel.
một bát cháo chạy ba quãng đồng
One bowl of porridge, three fields' run — a trifling gain chased across real distance.
một bước lên tiên
One step up to fairyland — an overnight leap from ordinary (or hard-up) straight into wealth, rank or comfort, skipping the climb everyone else makes.
một chân bước đi, mười chân bước lại
One foot stepping out, ten stepping back — a farewell the legs keep refusing.
Một chín một mười
Nine against ten — barely a hair between two people or things; so close in quality, skill or looks that ranking them feels arbitrary.
một chữ cũng là thầy, nửa chữ cũng là thầy
Whoever taught you one word is your teacher — half a word, still your teacher: gratitude to those who taught you is owed in full no matter how small the lesson. The vernacular twin of the Sino-Vietnamese «nhất tự vi sư, bán tự vi sư».
một con chim én không làm nên mùa xuân
One swallow does not make a spring — a lone sign, effort or person cannot carry the whole season; collective change needs numbers.
một con ngựa đau, cả tầu chê cỏ
One horse falls ill and the whole stable refuses grass — fellowship grieving as one body.
một con sâu làm rầu nồi canh
One worm sours the whole pot of soup — a single bad actor ruins the group’s name and everyone’s appetite; the Vietnamese take on the rotten apple.
một con tằm cũng phải hái giâu, một con trâu cũng phải đứng đồng
Even one silkworm needs its mulberry picked, even one buffalo must stand its field — the smallest charge is still a full duty.
một cách
Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see một, cách.
một câu nhịn chín câu lành
Better a lean peace than a fat victory.
một câu nhịn, bằng chín câu lành
One swallowed retort is worth nine kind sentences — restraint is the cheapest peace ever bought.
một cây làm chẳng nên non Ba cây chụm lại nên hòn núi cao
One tree makes no mountain; three trees clustered make a high peak — union as elevation; Vietnam's great verse of solidarity.
một cây làm chẳng nên non, ba cây chụm lại nên hòn núi cao
One person alone achieves little; people united can accomplish great things.
một công đôi chuyện
to kill two birds with one stone
một công đôi việc
to kill two birds with one stone
một cổ hai tròng
One neck in two yokes — crushed under two masters, or two heavy duties at once.
một giọt máu đào hơn ao nước lã
Close to the English saying: “Blood is thicker than water.”.
một gìa một trẻ bằng nhau
One old and one young come out even — second childhood meets first; the circle closes level.
một hai ba dô
The beer-table chant: "one, two, three, GO!" — roared in rounds, glass raised; the sound of a Vietnamese nhậu in full swing.
một lần bất tín, vạn lần bất tin
Break faith once, be doubted ten thousand times — trust shatters in a single stroke and never quite reassembles; the ledger of credibility has no eraser.
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