đậu xanh rau má
synonym of đụ má
All languages English Tiếng Việt
Where will you be? Anywhere Hà Nội & the NorthHuế / Đà Nẵng & the CenterSài Gòn & the SouthOnline slang Bắc ↔ Nam words
synonym of đụ má
Easily got, easily lost — the effortless acquisition keeps its own exit visa.
Winning Long and eyeing Shu — each conquest merely relocating the appetite.
Favor received, disgrace to fear — the favorite's pillow is stuffed with worry.
Bitter, it is still your own gut; sweet as they come, strangers stay strangers — the kin-verse with its warning appendix.
Bitter, still your gut; sweet, still a stranger — kin's harsh truth outranks outsiders' honey.
Bitter as soap-nut — the proverbial worst taste, swallowed whole.
Better fish dear than meat cheap — pay for the right thing, not less for the wrong one.
Selling well, it's cinnamon; unsold, it's firewood — the same bark, priced by demand alone.
The bargaining opener: "too expensive!" — half price-check, half theater; the South says "mắc quá" (same move, different word).
This bunch in hand, that bunch forgotten — gratitude with the shelf life of a banana.
Bird bagged, crossbow snapped — ingratitude that also disarms tomorrow's hunt.
Getting sinker and net both — one gain towing a second; advantage compounding.
Fish in hand, trap forgotten — the instrument of the catch is the first thing dropped.
Win the wealth's faction, lose the children's — few estates come out whole on both counts.
Beautiful with "no dead angle" — flawless from every camera position; the photography term promoted into everyday praise.
Shimmering-beautiful — the standard collocation for sparkling, picture-perfect looks: fairy lights, áo dài photos, freshly decorated rooms.
Beauty is an advantage — but a good essay is more than its opening. A viral aphorism that grants looks their due (they open doors) and then swiftly demotes them: substance carries the rest of the page. Used to praise depth over polish, tease the shallow, or console the plain.
Pretty as a painted lime — decorative perfection with nothing to squeeze.
Lovely as a fairy — beauty at full folklore grade.
Beautiful as a fairy descended — loveliness visiting from a better address.
Raise a child without teaching or scolding, and you'd have done better fattening a pig for its organs — the harshest verse on parental duty.
Born later, wise sooner — the child outthinking the elders' seniority.
She bore a son and can't tell whom he favors — the face is like the corporal, the head like the commune chief, the ears like the parish warden — satire aimed at every rank at once.
Carving a plow in the middle of the road — reworking a task to every passerby's advice until nothing is finished.
very thoroughly, without half-assing
Through to the chopstick-ends — done properly, all the way to the finish.
to show one's gratitude; to repay a kindness (usually in reference to war-time sacrifices made)
In order to.
"Let me see / let me check" — buys thinking time politely; casual speech prefers "để mình xem" or "để coi" (South).
The student shoulders the toil — apprenticeship's tuition is paid in labor.
A leech clinging to the crane's leg — attachment far above its station.
The peak of the peak — absolutely top-tier.
Peak-of-the-roof good — an intensifier pile-up meaning absolutely top-tier: đỉnh, nóc and kịch trần each already mean «the ceiling», stacked for comic overkill. Popularized by comedian Tự Long’s ad-lib on «Anh trai vượt ngàn chông gai».
Crazily good — "đỉnh" (peak) with the crude booster "vãi": praise that has stopped being polite and started being sincere.
Sacred ground breeds exceptional people — a storied land and the talents it raises.
Who can catch the loach by its tail, the bird by its wingtip, the person in the moon — a dare-list of impossibilities.
Who dares dive to the deep pool's floor to measure the fish's mouth and bend the hook to fit — the impossible errands of doubt.
Count the falling leaves if you can, count the layers of the sky, count the stars — then count a father's labor and a mother's love — the impossible arithmetic of gratitude.
Your own chaff-heap, scratched open by others' hens — the household's private mess, published by outsiders.
people who suffer the same illness look out for each other
to share the joys and sorrows (usually emphasising the “sorrow” part)
people live or work together but have very different interests or agendas
Like voices answer like — kindred natures find and echo one another.
Like voices echo each other, like spirits seek each other — kindred natures inevitably find one another; the classical (Sino-Vietnamese) ancestor of "birds of a feather flock together".
Like voices answer, like spirits seek — resonance assembles its own fellowship.
Over Tháp Mười the storks fly straight-winged; its waters glitter with fish and shrimp — the Mekong marshland's plenty.
Eat together, answer together — those who shared the spoils share the sentence.
The coin and the bowl of rice — the hard-earned money and goods a thing costs.
The coin is welded to the gut — money parts from its owner like a length of intestine.
Die together, live together — the oath at friendship's furthest edge.
The wicked aid the wicked — villainy runs a mutual-assistance society.
Đồng Đăng has Kỳ Lừa street, the Lady Tô Thị, the Tam Thanh pagoda — the border town's three treasures in one breath.
Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see pour, oil, fire.
to add insult to injury; literally "to add kerosene to fire"
A bowl of sweat traded for a bowl of rice — the exchange rate of honest labor, one to one.
get a new master but still remain a slave
Trading white for black — falsification at the primary-color level.
"Can I exchange it?" — sizes, colors, wrong orders; pair with the receipt and patience.
The lone invincible begging for defeat — so unbeatable that victory itself is lonely.