thập diện mai phục
Ambush on ten sides — surrounded so completely that every direction is the trap.
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thập mục sở thị
Ten eyes watching — done in the open, before witnesses enough to settle it.
thập thất chi ấp, tất hữu trung tín
Even a hamlet of ten houses holds one faithful soul — decency is never entirely out of stock.
thật như đếm
Honest as counting — plain, transparent truthfulness.
thật sự mà nói
to be honest; honestly, frankly
thật thà cũng thể lái trâu Yêu nhau cũng thể nàng dâu mẹ chồng
As honest as a buffalo-trader, as loving as bride and mother-in-law — two proverbial impossibilities in one breath.
thật thà là cha dại
Honesty is folly's father — said of candor so artless it undoes its owner.
thật thà là cha quỉ quái
Honesty is the father of cunning — the guileless outlast every schemer in the end.
thắm da đẫy mình
Rosy-skinned and full-figured — a young woman in blooming health.
thắm tha thắm thiết
Blood-warm and iron-fast — affection dyed deep and holding like metal.
thắng làm vua, thua làm giặc
might makes right; the winner is always in the right and the loser is always in the wrong.
thắng như chẻ tre
to get wins after wins; to rake victories
thắng về nội, thối về ngoại
The paternal family (father's side) is credited with good things while the maternal family (mother's side) is blamed for bad things.
thắt chặt quai túi
Diving head-first into the thicket — refuge chosen entirely by panic.
thằng chột làm vua xứ mù
synonym of anh chột làm vua xứ mù (“in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king”)
thằng còng làm, thằng ngay ăn
The bent man labors, the straight man eats — toil and takings, distributed by posture.
thằng ngô con đĩ
Riffraff of the market corners — the despised drifters at society's bottom rung.
thằng ốm đánh vật
A sick man in a wrestling bout — straining far past one's strength with little hope of winning.
thẳng mục tàu đau lòng gỗ
The straight ink-line pains the timber — honest measure always hurts what's crooked.
thẳng như ruột ngựa
Completely frank and direct — saying exactly what one thinks, without scheming.
thẳng thắn, thật thà thường thua thiệt
The straight and honest usually lose out — candor pays the bill for others' cunning.
thẻ ghi nợ hoặc thẻ tín dụng
debit or credit card
thẻ vàng hoặc thẻ đỏ
yellow card or red card
thế cô lực bạc
Isolated in position, thin in strength — no allies, no reserves.
thế gian còn dại chưa khôn Sống mặt áo rách, chết chôn áo lành
The world is still foolish, not yet wise — alive in torn shirts, buried in fine ones — spending on the dead what the living needed.
thế khuynh triều dã
Power tilting court and country — influence heavy enough to lean the whole state.
thế ngoại đào nguyên
A peach-blossom spring beyond the world — the hidden paradise every escape dreams of.
thế như phá trúc
Momentum like splitting bamboo — once the blade bites, every joint after gives way.
thế thiên hành đạo
to enforce the (moral) Way on behalf of Heaven, to take the law into one's own hands
thế tại tất đắc
Positioned where winning is obligatory — committed past the option of losing.
thề cá trê chui ống
empty promise; vain promise; false promise
thề mắc thắt dối
Oaths tangle the false — swear enough and the perjury knots itself.
thể dục nhịp điệu dưới nước
water aerobics
thể nào
Used to emphasize the irresistible result of an event regardless: no matter what
thệ tề bất cập
Biting your own navel, too late — remorse gnawing at what no tooth can reach.
thỉ chung như nhứt
First and last as one — constancy without a single alteration.
thỉnh vật kiến tiếu
Please don't laugh at me — the scholar's modest preface to any offering.
thỉnh đa kiến lượng
Kindly bear with me — the formal plea for indulgence.
thị cổ phi kim
Praising the ancients to damn the present — nostalgia weaponized.
thị khả nhẫn, thục bất khả nhẫn
If this can be borne, what cannot — cruelty so far past bearing it defines the limit.
thị tắc hành, phi tắc chỉ
Right, then act; wrong, then stop — decision is the hinge; hesitation does neither.
thị tử như quy
Facing death as a homecoming — courage that reads the grave as a return address.
thịt thà cá mú
Meat and fish and suchlike — the protein end of the market, spoken of loosely.
thịt đỏ và thịt trắng
red meat and white meat
thọ trái oán tài chủ
The debtor resents the creditor — gratitude curdles fastest in the borrowed hand.
thọ tài như thọ tiển
Receiving wealth is receiving an arrow — every gift arrives fletched with obligation.
thọ ơn thọ lộc
Fed on favor and perquisite — thriving on others' help until working feels optional.
thọc gậy bánh xe
to put a spoke in someone's wheel; to throw a spanner in the works
thỏ thẻ như trẻ nên ba
Lisping like a three-year-old — grown, and still babbling in milk-teeth.
thỏng mắm treo đầu giàn
A crock of fish-paste hung at the shelf's edge — arrangements one bump from disaster.
thố thủ bất cập
Hands too slow for the moment — caught before a single move was ready.
thố tử hồ bi
The fox mourns the rabbit — grief among kindred kinds; when your like falls, your own cold comes closer.
thối nhứt bộ tự nhiên khoang
Step back one pace and the world widens — yielding buys room the stubborn never see.
thớt trên mòn, thớt dưới cũng mòn
The top millstone wears, and so does the bottom — in every grinding lawsuit, both stones lose face.
thờ thày mới được làm thày
Honor your teacher to become one — mastery is inherited through respect.
thời thế tạo anh hùng
the time creates the hero
thời tiết thế nào?
How’s the weather?
thời tiết tệ quá!
What awful weather!
thợ rèn không dao ăn trầu
The blacksmith without a betel knife — supplying every house but his own.
thụ khổ thụ nan
Bearing bitterness and shouldering hardship — endurance as a full-time occupation.