giận hóa mất khôn
Hatred is as blind as love.
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All languages English Tiếng Việt
giận mắng lặng thương
The statue frets for the paste-jar, the jar for the statue — mutual dependence fretting in both directions.
giận thì đánh quạnh thì thương
Strike in anger, cherish in loneliness — the family bond swings but never severs.
giật đầu cá, vá đầu tôm
Snatching from the fish's head to patch the shrimp's — repairs funded by adjacent shortages.
giằng chẳng đứt, dứt chẳng ra
Tugging won't break it, snapping won't free it — an entanglement proof against both patience and force.
giặc pha không bằng nhà cháy
Raiders can't ruin you like your own house burning — the inside catastrophe beats the outside one.
giặc đến nhà, đàn-bà cũng đánh
When the invader reaches the house, even the women fight — the nation's line that every child learns.
giẻ-cùi tốt mã
The jay in fine feathers — plumage impeccable, substance absent.
giếng đó ếch dó
Where the well is, the frog is — the evidence lives at the scene; find the well, charge the frog.
giết chó khuyên chồng
Killing the dog to counsel the husband — the folk-tale wife's drastic object lesson; a shock staged for someone's own good.
giết gà dùng dao mổ trâu
use a sledgehammer to crack a nut
giết người đền tội
Take a life, answer with your own — homicide's oldest invoice.
giỏ nhà ai quai nhà nấy
Every house's basket has its own handle — each family bears its own stamp and mold.
giỏ đựng quần áo bẩn
laundry basket
giỏi lắm
"Well done!" — sincere praise to juniors and students; said flatly to an adult it flips into pure sarcasm. Tone is everything.
giống nhau như đúc
like two peas in a pod
giồng cây có ngày ăn quả
Plant the tree, and someday eat its fruit — patience with roots.
giời cao đất dầy
High heaven, thick earth — the immensities; what the reckless never measured.
giời có mắt
Heaven has eyes — wrongs are witnessed, whatever the courts miss.
giở mặt như bàn tay
Flipping the face like flipping a palm — allegiance reversed in one wrist-turn.
giữ gìn sức khỏe
"Take care of your health" — the parting blessing to elders, travelers, and anyone you won't see for a while; deeper than "bye".
giữ mồm giữ miệng
Guarding mouth and lips — watching one's words to stay out of trouble.
giữa đường đứt gánh
to give up halfway through a task; (of love) to be unfinished
gom hàng
To quietly accumulate — buy a stock little by little so the price never jumps, building a position before the markup begins.
GTVT
initialism of giao thông vận tải (“traffic and transport”)
gà chết vì tiếng gáy
The rooster dies of its own crowing — boasting is what brings the knife.
gà cậy gần chuồng
The hen is bold near her coop — bravery within sprinting distance of safety.
gà ghét nhau một tiếng gáy
Roosters hate each other over one crow — grudges seeded by a single note of precedence.
gà gáy gở
A rooster crowing at the wrong hour — the classic ill omen.
gà khôn gà chẳng đá lang Gái khôn gái chẳng bỏ làng gái đi
A wise rooster doesn't spar with the flock; a wise girl doesn't quit her village — prudence keeps its home ground.
gà mất mẹ
A chick that lost the mother hen — cheeping in circles; any charge suddenly unled.
gà mọc lông măng
The chick sprouting its first down — youth at its most confident and least fledged.
gà mọc đuôi tôm
A chicken sprouting a shrimp's tail — the upstart's first small flourish.
gà đẻ rồi gà tục tác,
The hen lays, then cackles the alarm — doing the deed and raising the cry, as if another did it.
gái bán hoa
working girl; female prostitute; literally "flower-selling girl"
gái có chồng như gông đeo cổ
A married woman wears the cangue at her neck — the old verse's grim portrait of wifehood.
gái giống cha giàu ba họ, trai giống mẹ khó ba đời
A daughter like her father enriches three clans; a son like his mother beggars three generations — the old cross-resemblance arithmetic.
gái hơn hai, giai hơn một
A wife older by two, a husband by one — the folk formula for a matched pair.
gái khôn trai dỗ, lâu buồn cũng xiêu
Even a sensible girl, courted long enough, leans — persistence outlasts prudence.
gái không chồng như thuyền không lái
A woman unmarried is a boat without a rudder — so ran the old verse, steering by husband.
gái mười bảy bẻ gãy sừng trâu
A girl of seventeen can snap a buffalo’s horn — youth at its peak brims with strength and appetite for the world; said of teenagers (girls especially) at the height of their vigor.
gái ngoan làm quan cho chồng
A capable wife holds office for her husband — running the household so well she governs his standing too.
gái tham tài trai tham sắc
Women covet means, men covet looks — desire's oldest division of labor.
gái tứ chiếng
A woman of the four garrisons — the drifting demimonde of the old towns.
gái đứng đường
A streetwalker — a woman soliciting on the street. Blunt and contemptuous in most mouths; the phrase is also thrown as pure insult with no literal meaning intended, which is reason enough to handle it with care.
gánh bàn độc mướn
Carrying the altar-table for hire — shouldering solemn burdens that were never yours.
gánh cực mà đổ lên non, cong lưng mà chạy, cực còn theo sau
Haul your misery up the mountain and dump it; bend your back and run — misery still follows behind.
gánh team
To carry the team — doing everyone’s share while teammates spectate.
gánh vàng vào kho
Hauling gold into the treasury — labor whose whole profit lands in official vaults.
gánh vã buôn thuyền
Plowing for hire, hoeing for wages — the landless day's labor, sold field by field.
gây thù chuốc oán
Sowing feuds and buying grudges — making enemies whose hatred comes back on you.
gây tê ngoài màng cứng
to administer an epidural; epidural anesthesia
gãi đúng chỗ ngứa
Scratching right where it itches — hitting exactly what someone was hoping for.
gãi đầu gãi tai
Scratching head and ear — squirming over something awkward to say or solve.
gét gô
Bring it on.
gì cơ
Northern "what was that? / come again?" — polite non-comprehension; "cơ" is a distinctly Hà Nội particle.
gì vậy
Southern "what? / what's that?" — from genuine question to mild outrage ("cái gì vậy trời!") depending on volume.
gìa lăm gìa hỏng
Count on it hard and watch it miss — what's banked on never lands; the accidental arrives instead.
gìa sanh tật, đất sanh cỏ
Age sprouts infirmities as soil sprouts weeds — the years plant what they please.
gò bồng đảo
The mounds of the Isles of Bliss — a woman's breasts, in Hồ Xuân Hương's sly classical geography.
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