bôi tro trát trấu
to tarnish; to besmirch
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Where will you be? Anywhere Hà Nội & the NorthHuế / Đà Nẵng & the CenterSài Gòn & the SouthOnline slang Bắc ↔ Nam words
bôi trung xà ảnh
The snake in the wine cup — a shadow mistaken for poison; illness by imagination.
bõ công má hồng
Worth the rosy cheeks' while — effort repaid; the beauty's pains not wasted.
bĩ cực thái lai
it is always darkest before the dawn
bưng kín miệng bình
Cinch the purse-string tight — thrift at the drawstring.
bưng miệng vò miệng lọ, ai bưng được miệng thiên-hạ
You can cover a jar's mouth or a crock's — nobody covers the world's — the one vessel without a lid.
bưng tai giả điếc
Covering the ears, playing deaf — refusal upgraded to disability.
bạ ăn bạ nói
Eating anywhere, talking anyhow — grazing and blurting with no manners at all.
bạc đầu còn dại
White-haired and still foolish — age without its promised wisdom.
bạch mao nữ
A woman whose hair turns white before its time — from the Chinese tale of the White-Haired Girl, an image of deep suffering.
bạch ốc khởi công khanh
From a white hut rise ministers — greatness starts in unpainted houses.
bạn bao nhiêu tuổi?
How old are you?
bạn còn phòng không
The check-in question: "do you have rooms left?" — "còn" (still have) is the load-bearing word for any availability question.
bạn có con không?
Do you have any children?
bạn duật tương trì, ngư ông đắc lợi
Clam and snipe locked fast, the fisherman profits — the full-length telling of the two rivals and the third who wins.
bạn khỏe không
The textbook "how are you?" — fine with strangers your age, but real speech swaps "bạn" for the right kinship word: "anh/chị/em khỏe không?".
bạn khỏe không?
How are you?
bạn làm gì?
What do you do for work?
bạn làm nghề gì?
What do you do for a living?
bạn làm ở đâu?
Where do you work?
bạn nói gì cơ?
Sorry? What did you say?
bạn sống ở đâu?
Where do you live?
bạn đang đi làm hay đi học?
Do you work or study?
bạn đã kết hôn hay còn độc thân?
Are you married or single?
bạn đến từ đâu?
Where are you from?
bạng duật tương trì
When the clam and the snipe grapple, the fisherman profits — two rivals locked in struggle only hand the prize to a third.
bạo hổ bằng hà
Wrestling tigers barehanded and wading great rivers — courage with the planning left out.
bạo mồm bạo miệng
Bold-mouthed — daring to say straight out what others swallow.
bạo phát bạo tàn
Quick to flare, quick to fade — fortunes that bloom overnight wither by morning.
bảng vàng bia đá
Gold rolls and stone steles — achievement carved into the permanent record.
bảo tân cứu hoả
Hauling firewood to fight the fire — a remedy that feeds the disease.
bảy mươi chưa què, chớ khoe mình lành
Not lame at seventy? Don't boast of soundness yet — infirmity keeps its own calendar.
bảy mươi chưa què, chớ khoe rằng tốt
Don’t boast of your luck before seventy — until the story is over, fortune can still turn; no one gets to declare victory over fate mid-game.
bảy mươi học bảy mươi mốt
Seventy still learns from seventy-one — there is no age past apprenticeship.
bấm nút mở cửa cho ai vào
to buzz someone in
bất can kỉ sự, mạc đương đầu
Not your affair? Don't put your head in — uninvolved is a position worth keeping.
bất chấp thủ đoạn
Scruples be damned — pursuing the goal by any device whatever.
bất cận nhơn tình
Out of touch with human feeling — conduct by private code, deaf to how people are.
bất di bất dịch
Immovable and unshifting — fixed once and for all, never to change.
bất dĩ thành bại, luận anh hùng
Don't weigh heroes by win and loss — battle luck is no measure of the man.
bất oán thiên, bất vưu nhơn
Resent not heaven, blame not others — peace begins at accepting one's lot.
bất sỉ hạ vấn
Unashamed to ask those below — the wise take instruction wherever it lives.
bất thùng chi thình
Thudding along without restraint — eating, drinking and doing exactly as appetite dictates.
bần cùng sinh đạo tặc
poor people are going to do what they must to get by
bầu leo dây bí cũng leo
The gourd climbs, and the squash vine climbs after — imitation scaling the same trellis.
bầu ơi thương lấy bí cùng, tuy rằng khác giống nhưng chung một giàn
love thy neighbor as thyself
bẩy nổi ba chìm
Seven times afloat, three times under — a fate tossed like a rice-cake in the pot; Hồ Xuân Hương's phrase for a woman's lot.
bận lắm
"Really busy" — the standing reply of modern life; append "để bữa khác nha" (another time, okay?) to soften the decline.
bật mí bí mật bị mất
A tongue-twisting lái chain — "reveal the secret that got lost" — said for fun or to tease someone who just spilled something.
bật tôm tanh tách
Snapping back like shrimp on a griddle — quick, crackling retorts to everything.
bắc nước chờ gạo
Pot on the fire, waiting for rice — preparation outrunning supply.
bắc thang lên hỏi trăng già, phải chăng phận gái mưa sa giữa trời. May ra gặp được giếng khơi Vừa trong vừa mát lại nơi thanh nhàn. Chẳng may số phận gian nan, lầm than phải chịu phàn nàn cùng ai
Set a ladder to the old moon and ask: is a girl's fate truly rain scattered mid-sky — landing in a clear well if lucky, in hardship if not.
bắn nhạn ven mây
To shoot the wild goose at the cloud's edge — to triumph brilliantly in a difficult examination.
bắn súng không nên phải đền đạn
Fire and miss, and you owe the bullet — failed attempts still bill their ammunition.
bắt chuột không hay, hay ỉa bếp
No good at mousing, expert at fouling the kitchen — useless where needed, busy where not.
bắt chước như khỉ
monkey see, monkey do
bắt chạch trong chum
Catching the loach in the water-jar — the sure thing, staged in a container.
bắt chạch đằng đuôi
Grabbing the loach by the tail — the hold that guarantees escape.
bắt cá hai tay
If you cannot make up your mind which of two things you should do, you are liable to get yourself into difficulties by doing neither.
bắt cóc, bỏ vào dĩa
Catching frogs into a saucer — no sooner in than out; custody that cannot hold.
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