bang môn lộng phủ
Swinging an axe at Ban's own door — flaunting a skill before its master.
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bao giờ cây chuối có cành, cho sung có nụ, cho hành có hoa. Bao giờ chạch đẻ ngọn đa, sáo đẻ dưới nước thì ta lấy mình. Bao giờ cây cải làm đình, gỗ lim thái ghém thì mình lấy ta
When the banana grows branches and the fig buds, when the loach spawns atop the banyan — then I'll marry you — refusal by botanical impossibility.
bao giờ hến mới mở mồm
When will the mussel open its mouth — the silent one's speech, awaited like a tide.
bao giờ hết cỏ Tháp Mười
When the grass of Tháp Mười runs out — the resistance oath: only then will the South stop fighting — defiance with a botanical deadline.
bao gồm cả ba bữa ăn
to include all three meals; full board
bao nhiêu tiền
THE shopping question: "how much money?" — usually softened with a vocative: "Cô ơi, cái này bao nhiêu tiền?".
Bao Tự cười
A smile as rare and costly as Baosi's — an allusion to a beauty who never smiles, or to pleasure bought at ruinous price.
bia mậu dịch kịch ti vi
State-shop beer and television drama — the subsidy era's twin luxuries; the good life, ration-book edition.
binh hùng tướng mạnh
Mighty troops and strong generals — a force at the height of its strength.
biết chết liền
I don't know; no idea
biết mặt không biết tên
Known by face, not by name — acquaintance at half resolution.
biết một mà chẳng biết mười
Knowing one without knowing ten — a corner of the picture mistaken for the whole.
biết người biết của
To know people and know goods — to judge both people and things at their true worth.
biết người biết mặt, chẳng biết lòng
You know the person and the face, never the heart — acquaintance stops at the skin.
biết người biết ta
Know the other, know yourself — sizing both sides truly and acting with due measure.
biết ngứa đâu mà gãi
Where's the itch I'm meant to scratch? — wanting to help with no idea where help is wanted.
biết nói tiếng Anh không
The survival question "do you speak English?" — street-form Vietnamese drops the pronoun; add "anh/chị" in front to be polite.
biết rồi
"I know / got it" — acknowledgment with a teenager's edge when repeated: "biết rồi mà!" (I KNOW, okay?).
biết rồi, khổ lắm, nói mãi
I get it! Quit your nagging!
biết thì thưa thốt, không biết thì dựa cột mà nghe
if you know about something, do talk about it, if you don't, lean back on a pillar and listen
biết thế
Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see biết, thế.
biết đâu ma ăn cỗ
Who's to know which ghost ate the offerings — with no witness, the culprit can never be named.
bn
initialism of bao nhiêu
bom hàng
To order and ghost — placing an online order (often COD) and then vanishing when the package arrives, leaving the seller stuck with the shipping bill; every livestream seller's nightmare.
boy phố
The city-street boy archetype — streetwear, bike runs at midnight, effortless cool; Hanoi's answer to the downtown kid.
bt
Texting shortcut with two readings: “biết” (to know) or “bình thường” (normal, meh) — context decides.
bu lông và đai ốc
nuts and bolts
buôn bán sổi
Swarming like ants — numbers past counting.
buôn có bạn, bán có phường
Trade with partners, sell with a guild — commerce is a company sport.
buôn dưa lê
to shoot the breeze; to chew the fat; to gossip
buôn dầm cầm chèo
Paddle in one hand, oar in the other — hands never once at rest.
buôn gánh bán bưng
To trade from a shoulder-pole and sell from a tray — to scrape a living as a street vendor.
buôn gặp chầu, câu gặp chỗ
Trade meets its market, fishing meets its hole — the lucky moment when the work and the chance align.
buôn hương bán phấn
To trade in scent and sell powder — to live by prostitution.
buôn mây bán gió
Trading in clouds and selling wind — commerce in the perfectly intangible.
buôn phấn bán son
To trade in powder and sell rouge — to live by prostitution.
buôn quan tám bán quan tư
Buy at eight quan, sell at four — commerce conducted at half price; the losing trade.
buôn Sở bán Tần
Trading in Sở, selling in Tần — commerce shuttling between rival kingdoms; the far-flung dealer.
buôn thúng bán bưng
Basket trade and tray selling — petty street vending to get by.
buồn ngủ gặp chiếu manh
Drowsy, and a spare mat appears — the need meeting its remedy by pure luck.
buồn ngủ quá
"So sleepy" — the after-lunch national condition; the cà phê sữa đá exists because of this phrase.
buộc chỉ chân voi
Tying the elephant with sewing thread — restraint amusingly beneath its object.
buộc chỉ cổ tay
A thread tied at the wrist — the old charm binding a promise, or a soul, in place.
bà con xa, chẳng bằng xóm diềng gần
Distant kin are no match for close neighbors — the ones nearby are the ones who come running.
bà cố
Literally "great-grandmother", but in Southern mouths an intensifier of absurd degree — "nhiều bà cố" is not many, it is way, WAY too many.
bà già bốc mắm
An old woman scooping fish paste with her fingers — a sloppy worker who makes a mess of whatever she touches.
bà già chơi trống bỏi
An old woman playing a child's paper drum — age at play far beneath its years.
bà già gặp kẻ cắp
The old lady meets the pickpocket — the sly finally sampling slyness from the receiving end.
bà Mụ nặn nhầm
something must have gone wrong when the Midwife got this child out of their mother
bàn dân thiên hạ
All the world and their neighbor — everybody, the general public.
bá nhơn bá tánh
A hundred people, a hundred temperaments — natures come one to a customer.
bác cổ thông kim
Versed in the old and fluent in the new — deeply learned across past and present.
bác sĩ nắn chỉnh cột sống
chiropractor
bách chiến bách thắng
"Fight a hundred battles, win all those hundred"; to win every fight; to be ever-victorious
bách nghệ hảo tuỳ thân
Any of the hundred crafts serves the body well — every honest trade carries its owner.
bách niên giai lão
May you both live to a hundred together — a classic blessing for newlyweds.
bách phát bách trúng
the person in question is a highly skilled marksman and they almost never miss
bán anh em xa, mua láng-diềng gần
Sell the distant kin, buy the near neighbor — proximity outbids blood when the lamp goes out.
bán chạy như tôm tươi
to sell like hot cakes
bán trời không chừng
Selling the sky without limit — mischief on a celestial scale.
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