chết trẻ khỏe ma, chết già lú lẩn
Die young, a nimble ghost; die old, a muddled one — mortality's consolation for the early-taken.
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Where will you be? Anywhere Hà Nội & the NorthHuế / Đà Nẵng & the CenterSài Gòn & the SouthOnline slang Bắc ↔ Nam words
chết vinh còn hơn sống nhục
Better die a beggar than live a beggar.
chết đi được
'...to death' — the all-purpose Vietnamese intensifier of feeling: happy, sad or full, to the point of dying.
chỉ hươu nói ngựa
To brazenly call one thing another — deliberate misrepresentation, often to deceive or curry favor.
chỉ là hiểu lầm thôi
"It's just a misunderstanding" — the de-escalation phrase; "thôi" at the end shrinks the whole affair back to size.
chỉ mành treo chuông
A bell hung by a thread — everything precious suspended from the flimsiest strand.
chỉ sông sông cạn, chỉ núi núi tan
Point at the river, it drains; at the mountain, it crumbles — the lover's oath at maximum wattage.
chị ngã em nâng
When the elder sister falls, the younger lifts her — siblings as each other's ground.
chị đẹp
"Pretty big sister" — the affectionate title for a glamorous, capable older woman the internet collectively admires.
chị ơi
Calling a woman slightly older than you — vendor, cashier, stranger on the street. Respectful and friendly at once.
chịu chết
Total surrender before a problem: "I give up, nothing can be done". Stronger than plain "chịu" — you are declaring the case hopeless.
chịu luôn
Hands thrown up: "I'm done, can't deal" — cheerful surrender to a person or puzzle beyond your powers.
chọc cứt ra mà ngửi
To stir up dung just to smell it — dredging up someone's dirt only dirties yourself.
chọn mặt gửi vàng
Choose the face before entrusting the gold — pick carefully whom you trust with what matters most.
chọn người gửi của
Fleeing the lord to live in the pagoda — refuge one rung up from the trouble.
chỏ hươu chỏ vượn
Talking snakes and dragons — narrative inflated species by species.
chốt luôn
"Locked in!" — decision finalized on the spot; the verbal gavel of group chats planning anything.
chốt lời
To lock in profit — sell and make the paper gain real; the only known cure for counting crabs still in their holes («đếm cua trong lỗ»).
chốt đơn
To close the order — livestream-commerce Vietnamese for committing to buy; sellers chant it, buyers comment it, wallets fear it.
chồng ghét thì ra, mụ gia ghét thì vào
Husband's disfavor puts you out; his mother's only keeps you in — only one displeasure in that house is fatal.
chồng hoà vợ thuận
Husband amiable, wife agreeable — concord as the household's operating system.
chồng loan vợ phượng
Loan husband, phoenix wife — a couple matched like the paired birds of legend.
chồng người đánh giặc sông Lô Chồng em ngồi bếp rang ngô cháy quần Chồng người cưỡi ngựa bắn cung Chồng em ngồi bếp cầm chun bắn ruồi
Her husband fights at the Lô river; mine squats by the stove roasting corn till his trousers scorch — the wives' merciless comparison of husbands.
chồng đông vợ đoài
Husband east, wife west — one household, two horizons.
chổi cùn rế rách
Worn-out broom and torn pot-rest — the household's humblest veterans; and one's own dear shabby things.
chỗ dừng xe bên đường
roadside lay-by; pull-off area
chỗ ăn không hết, chỗ thết không khẳm
One larder overflows while the other can't fill the table — take from surplus to mend the shortfall.
chớp bể mưa nguồn
Lightning at sea and rain in the highlands — sudden, unreadable turns of weather or fortune.
chờ chút
"Hold on a sec" — universal pause button; Southern speech shrinks it to the even friendlier "chờ xíu".
chờ xíu
The Southern "wait a tiny bit" — "xíu" (a smidge) makes any wait sound short and sweet.
chờ được mạ thì má đã sưng
By the time mother comes, the cheek is already swollen — help you have to wait for arrives after the blow lands.
chở củi về rừng
To do something pointlessly redundant — bringing something to a place that already has plenty of it.
chợ chưa họp, kẻ cắp đã đông
The market not yet open, the pickpockets already thick — predators arrive before the prey does.
chủ trung tín
Hold to loyalty and good faith — sincerity as the root of all standing.
chức trọng quyền cao
High office and heavy authority — rank with real power attached.
chứng nào tật nấy
Who drinks, will drink again.
chửa đánh người mặt đỏ như vang, đánh được người mặt vàng như nghệ
Before the blow lands, the face burns sappan-red; after it lands, turmeric-yellow — bravado's full color cycle.
chửi chó mắng mèo
Cursing the dog and scolding the cat — jabbing at someone sideways instead of saying it to their face.
chữ như cua bò sàng
Handwriting like crabs crawling a sieve — script scuttling in every direction.
chữ tác đánh chữ tộ
Mistaking the character tác for tộ — semi-literate blundering; garbling one thing for another.
chữa dép ruộng dưa
Combed by wind, washed by rain — groomed entirely by hard weather.
clgt
initialism of cái lồn gì thế? (“the fuck is/was that?”): WTF
CMNR
CMNR — initialism of 'chuẩn mẹ nó rồi': exactly right, damn straight.
coi bằng mặt, chớ bắt bằng tay
Look with the eyes, seize not with the hands — admire, and leave untouched.
coi người bằng nửa con mắt
Looking at people with half an eye — scarcely deigning to see them at all.
coi người như rơm như rác
Treating people like straw and rubbish — contempt that rates others as refuse.
coi trời bằng vung
to be arrogant despite one's ignorance; to be egotistical
con cháu các cụ
Children of the elders — a wry label for the privileged offspring of ranking officials.
con cháu hơn ông vải
Grandchildren outranking the ancestral tablets — greenhorns lecturing their elders.
con cháu đẻ ông vải
Grandchildren lecturing the ancestor tablets — the young overruling the very elders who made them.
con cà con kê
This hen, that rooster — rambling talk that never finds its point.
con cái khôn ngoan vẻ vang cha mẹ
Wise children are their parents' glory — the family's honor grows in its offspring.
con có cha như nhà có nóc
"children need their fathers to be complete"
con có cha như nhà có nóc, con không cha như nòng nọc đứt đuôi
A child with a father is a house with a roof; without, a tadpole with its tail snapped off — shelter and its absence, in one image.
con công chẳng giống lông cũng giống kiến
The peacock's chick, if not its feathers then its gait — breeding shows one way or another.
con gái con đứa
what kind of girl that...
con gái làng Vờ đẹp như trong tranh
The girls of Vờ village, lovely as paintings — a local boast in one brushstroke.
con gái mười hai bến nước
A girl faces twelve landings — a woman's marriage is a ferry that may tie up at any of twelve shores, clear or murky.
con gái nói có là không, nói yêu là ghét, nói buồn là vui
A girl's 'yes' means no, her 'love' means hate, her 'sad' means glad — the teasing dictionary of courtship.
con học thóc vay
The child studies on borrowed rice — education mortgaged meal by meal.
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