bỏ ngoài tai
to turn a deaf ear
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All languages English Tiếng Việt
bỏ qua đi
"Let it slide" — advice to drop a grievance; between friends it's mercy, from elders it's a verdict.
bỏ thì thương, vương thì tội
Discard it and grieve; keep it and suffer — the dilemma of what can neither stay nor go.
bố láo
A Northern rebuke for cheeky, insolent talk or brazen nonsense — between friends it lands as "you're full of it", from an elder it is a genuine scolding.
bố láo chi khươn
Utter insolent rot — barefaced, uncultured nonsense.
bốc bát họ
To take out a street loan — an informal «họ» rotating-credit payout turned loan-shark product: you collect a lump sum and repay in steep daily installments; a staple of Northern black-credit stories.
bốn chín gặp năm mươi
Forty-nine meets fifty — two of a kind colliding: opponents so evenly matched (and often equally stubborn) that neither can get the upper hand; said with a grin when a quarrel or contest refuses to produce a winner.
bống biển gầy nên một nhà
Sea-drift gathered into one house — strangers washed together until they're family.
bồng em thì khỏi xay lúa, xay lúa thì khỏi bồng em
Minding the baby excuses the rice-milling, and the reverse — one back cannot carry two jobs at once.
bổn cũ soạn lại
the same tired old trick; the same trite trope
bộ phong tróc ảnh
Netting wind and grabbing shadows — chasing what no hand can close on.
bới bèo ra bọ
Rake the duckweed and find the vermin — inspect anything closely and out crawl its faults.
bới đất nhặt cỏ
Scratching soil and picking grass — subsistence at the fingernail level.
bớt bát mát mặt
One bowl fewer, a cooler face — eat a little less and keep your dignity intact.
bớt chút được không
The bargaining ask: "can you take a little off?" — friendly haggling is expected at markets; smiles win discounts, indignation doesn't.
bỡn quá hoá thật
Tease too far and it turns true — the joke that crossed into fact.
bợm già mắc bẫy cò-ke
The old rogue caught in a berry-snare — a lifetime of cunning undone by the simplest trap.
bụng bảo dạ
Belly tells gut — to say something to oneself, keeping the thought private.
bụng đói cật rét
Empty belly, frozen back — want attacking from inside and out.
bụt chùa nhà không thiêng
The Buddha of your own pagoda works no miracles — the familiar is never revered; experts are strangers at home.
bụt nhà không thiêng
familiarity breeds contempt
bụt trên toà gà nào dám mổ mắt
No hen dares peck the Buddha on his altar — station protects; who strikes at the enthroned?
ca sĩ kiêm nhạc sĩ
singer-songwriter
cam Phù Tải, vải Thúy Lâm
Oranges of Phù Tải, lychees of Thúy Lâm — the produce map of Hải Dương pride.
camera gắn trên mũ bảo hiểm
helmet camera
canh một chửa nằm, canh năm đã dậy
First watch not yet lain down, fifth watch already risen — sleep squeezed between two darknesses.
canh điền bất kiến điểu, hòa thục điểu phi lai
No bird at the plowing, flocks at the ripening — helpers appear at harvest, never at labor.
cao bay xa chạy
Flying high and running far — talents with reach; free to soar wherever ability carries.
Cao Biền dậy non
Gao Pian's spell roused too soon — a scheme sprung before it ripened, doomed by its own haste.
cao chạy xa bay
to be long gone and nowhere to be found, especially after committing a crime
cao lễ dễ thưa
Rich offerings make easy petitions — generous gifts open official ears.
cao nhơn tất hữu cao nhơn trị
Above every master stands a master — let no one boast; higher skill always exists.
cao nấm, ấm mồ
A high mound keeps the grave warm — ancestors well honored shelter their descendants long.
cao su đi dễ khó về,
Rubber-plantation roads: easy to walk in, hard to walk out — men leave their health in the latex rows — the colonial plantation's epitaph.
cao điểu tận, lương cung tàng
The high birds gone, the fine bow is shelved — servants discarded the moment the need ends.
cao địa
upland; highland
CCQ
initialism of các cơ quan (“agencies”)
cha chài chú chóp
Elephant's head, mousetail ending — the grand start dwindling to its little finish.
cha già con mọn
An old father and a small child — care's hardest overlap: age at one end, infancy at the other.
cha hắn lú chú hắn khôn
The father a dolt, the uncle sharp — no household is issued fools throughout.
cha mẹ cú đẻ con tiên
Owl parents, fairy child — a splendid child of unpromising stock.
cha mẹ giàu con thong thả, cha mẹ nghèo con vất vả gian nan. Sớm mai lên núi đốt than, chiều về xuống biển đào hang bắt còng
Rich parents, an easy child; poor parents, a child of hardship — charcoal on the mountain at dawn, crab-holes on the shore at dusk.
cha mẹ sinh con, giời đất sinh tính
Parents make the child; heaven and earth make its temperament — the disposition arrives from a different workshop.
cha mẹ sinh con, trời sinh tính
parents may be the ones who birth their children, but it's heaven who gives them their personality
cha nào, con nấy
Like father, like son.
cha sinh không bằng mẹ dưỡng
Begetting is less than rearing — the mother who raises outranks the blood that made.
cha sinh mẹ dưỡng
Father begets, mother nurtures — the division of the first debt.
cha ăn mặn, con khát nước
The father eats salty, the child grows thirsty — one generation's excesses billed to the next.
check var
To demand or run a fact-check on someone's claim — borrowed from football's VAR video review — especially calling out inflated charity donations or lifestyle flexes with receipts.
chi mà
A gentle Central push-back meaning "what for?" or "why even bother?" — softens a disagreement into a shrug rather than a challenge.
chi rứa
Central Vietnamese for "what's that? / what's going on?" — the surprised question you hear across Huế and Quảng where standard speech says "gì vậy".
chia uyên rẽ thuý
to separate two lovers
chim chích vào rừng
A tailorbird entering the forest — the small specialist lost in the big wild.
chim có tổ, người có tông
one should never forget about one's ancestry
chim cầu khách quán
A bridge bird at a wayside inn — perched a moment, gone the next; a life with no fixed roost.
chim khôn tránh bẩy tránh dò, người khôn tránh kẻ hồ đồ mới khôn
The wise bird shuns snare and trap; the wise person shuns the reckless — self-preservation is the first wisdom.
chim không kêu tiếng rảnh rang, người khôn nói tiếng dịu dàng dễ nghe
A wise bird doesn't waste its call; a wise person speaks gently and is heard — soft speech is the mark of sense.
chim lồng cá chậu
A bird in a cage, a fish in a bowl — comfort without freedom; a pampered captivity.
chim nhát là chim sống lâu
The timid bird lives longest — mocked as cowardice, practiced as longevity.
chim sổ lồng
The bird once out of the cage — gone without a backward glance, past all recall.
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