nhặt lá đá ống bơ
overly curious in taking a crack at miscellaneous items, usually with no or little purpose
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Where will you be? Anywhere Hà Nội & the NorthHuế / Đà Nẵng & the CenterSài Gòn & the SouthOnline slang Bắc ↔ Nam words
nhẹ bằng lông quăng không đi, nặng bằng chì quăng xa lắc
Light as a feather yet unthrowable; heavy as lead yet it sails — handling, not weight, decides the task.
nhổ cỏ nhổ cả rễ
Pull the weed, pull the root — if you must destroy, destroy to the last fiber or it grows back.
nhớ ai bổi hổi bồi hồi, như đứng đống lửa như ngồi đống than
Missing someone, restless and turning — like standing in a bonfire, like sitting on coals — longing rendered in embers.
nhờ lụt đẩy rều
Riding the flood to push the driftwood — borrowing one current to move another cargo.
nhời nói bằng đọi máu
A word weighs a bowl of blood — speech can cost exactly that much; weigh it first.
nhời nói là gói vàng
A word is a packet of gold — speech carries bullion weight; spend it carefully.
nhục huyền hổ khẩu
Meat hung at the tiger's mouth — property, or persons, parked in the one place sure to consume them.
nhứt bất tố, nhị bất hưu
First, don't start; second, don't stop — begin nothing, or finish everything.
nhứt chứng phi nhì chứng quả
One witness proves nothing, two prove all — testimony's arithmetic in the old courts.
nhứt có râu nhì bầu bụng
First a beard, then a gourd belly — the physiognomy of prosperity, whiskers before waistline.
nhứt dạ sanh bá kế
One night breeds a hundred schemes — the sleepless heart is a workshop of plots.
nhứt là voi một ngà, nhì là người ta một mắt
Beware the one-tusked elephant and the one-eyed man — folk physiognomy's two flagged dangers.
nhứt nghệ tinh, nhứt thân vinh
One craft mastered, one life honored — a single trade polished to shine carries its owner whole.
nhứt ngôn khả dĩ hưng ban, nhứt ngôn khả dĩ tán ban
One sentence can raise a state, one sentence can ruin it — weigh speech like statecraft.
nhứt nhựt bất kiến, như tam ngoạt hề
One day unseen, three autumns long — absence stretching every hour into a season.
nhứt nhựt bất niệm thiện, chư ác giai tự khởi
Skip one day of good intent and every evil sprouts by itself — virtue is daily maintenance.
nhứt nhựt tại tù, thiên thu tại ngoại
One day in prison, a thousand autumns outside — captivity's clock runs a millennium per day.
nhứt nhựt vi sư
A teacher for one day is a teacher — instruction of an hour earns a lifetime's respect.
nhứt pháp lập nhứt tệ sanh
Each new law births its own racket — every fresh rule feeds the clerks who work its loopholes.
nhứt tinh chi hỏa năng thiêu vạn khoảnh chi tân, bán cú phi ngôn ngộ tổ bình sanh chi đức
One spark burns ten thousand cords of wood; one crooked half-sentence burns a lifetime's virtue — fire and speech, same physics.
nhứt ẩm nhứt trác sự giai tiền định
Every sip and every peck was settled beforehand — down to the least mouthful, the script is prior.
nhữ tác ưng hoàn nhữ thọ
You did it, you answer for it — the deed's invoice is addressed to its maker.
những khi trái nắng trở trời, con đau là mẹ đứng ngồi không yên. Trọn đời vất vả triền miên, chăm lo bát gạo vàng bạc nuôi con
When the weather crossed and the child fell ill, mother could neither stand nor sit — a whole life of ceaseless toil, trading rice-bowls of gold to raise her young.
những người con mắt lá răm Lông mày lá liễu đáng trăm quan tiền
Eyes like knotweed leaves and willow-leaf brows — worth a hundred strings of coin — the classical inventory of a lovely face.
nhựt một đồ cùng
The sun low, the road ended — old age's dusk, past all racing.
nhựt nguyệt tuy minh, nam chiếu phúc bồn chi hạ
Sun and moon shine, but never under the upturned basin — even genius has its blind hollow.
ninh thọ tử bất ninh thọ nhục
Rather death than disgrace — the neck outranks the name in no ledger that matters.
ninh vi sơn thượng hổ, bất tác phủ trung ngư
Better a tiger on the mountain than a fish in the pot — sovereignty in the wild over comfort in captivity.
niên nguyệt tuy đa, bất quá nhứt bổn nhứt tức
However many the years, interest may not pass principal — the old usury cap: one capital, one interest.
no bụng đói con mắt
His eyes are bigger than his belly.
no cơm dửng mỡ
Full of rice and frisky — comfort breeding mischief.
no dồn đói góp
Feast crammed, famine scraped — bingeing and starving by turns; no steady measure.
no hết ngon, giận hết khôn
Full spoils the appetite, fury spoils the wits — anger is a brief insanity.
no nên bụt, đói nên ma
Fed, a Buddha; starved, a ghost — morality runs on meals.
no star where
It's fine, no problem — a joke word-for-word "translation" of "không sao đâu" (không = no, sao = star, đâu = where). Classic Vietnamese-English wordplay.
no trong mo ngoài đất sét
Full inside, palm-sheath and clay outside — the cowherd's trick of plastering the hungry buffalo; padding over emptiness.
no xôi chán chè
Stuffed with sticky rice, sick of sweet soup — sated to the point of revulsion.
non Bồng nước Nhược
The Bồng peaks and Nhược waters — fairyland; the immortals' postal address.
non cao cũng có đường trèo, hiểm nghèo cũng có lối đi
The high mountain has its climbing path; even peril keeps a way through — no terrain is entirely without a road.
nuôi con cho được vuông tròn Mẹ thầy đầu gãi xương mòn gối cong. Nuôi con khó nhọc đến giờ Trưởng thành con phải biết thờ hai thân
Raising a child to full and whole, the parents' heads scratch bare, bones wear, knees bow — grown now, the child must honor those two.
nuôi con không phép kể tiền cơm
No parent invoices the rice — feeding one's children admits no bookkeeping.
nuôi con mới biết sự tình Thầm thương cha mẹ nuôi mình hồi xưa
Only in raising my own children do I understand — and silently love my parents for raising me back then.
nuôi cáo chuồng gà
Keeping a fox in the hen-coop — sheltering the one who will devour you.
nuôi heo rán lấy mỡ, nuôi con đỡ chơn tay
Raise the pig for lard, raise the child for helping hands — the farmhouse arithmetic of dependents.
nuôi khỉ dòm nhà
Keeping a monkey to watch the house — entrusting the wrong creature and paying for it.
nuôi ong tay áo
to protect or raise someone who could later betray or turn against you; to nourish a viper in one's bosom
nuôi ong tay áo, nuôi khỉ dòm nhà
A bee in the sleeve, a monkey watching the house — nurtured enemies posted at your softest points.
NVCC
initialism of nhân vật cung cấp
nx
Texting shortcut for “nữa” — more / also. “j nx” = what else?
nà ní
Nà ní — Vietnamese respelling of Japanese 'nani': whaaat?!, disbelief in anime intonation.
nài hoa ép liễu
Forcing the flower and bending the willow — coercing a woman's favors; sexual imposition.
này kia khác nọ
this one here, that one there, something else and that other one
nát giỏ còn bờ tre
The basket breaks; the bamboo hedge stands — the tool is lost, the source that makes tools remains.
nát như tương
Mashed as fermented bean paste — pulped past recognition.
nâng khăn sửa túi
Lifting the towel and straightening the purse — the old ideal of a wife's attentive service to her husband.
ném tiền qua cửa sổ
Throwing money out the window — spending with reckless, showy waste.
nén bạc đâm toạc tờ giấy
A silver ingot tears through the paper — money rips the strongest document; bribery beats writ.
nín như thóc
Quiet as stored paddy — not one grain of a word.
nói chín thì nên làm mười Nói mười làm chín kẻ cười người chê
Say nine, then do ten; say ten and do nine, and the world will laugh — deeds must outrun words.