chạy mất dép
To flee in such a panic that you leave your sandals behind — to run for it, comically fast.
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chạy rông như chó dái
Roaming like an unneutered dog — ranging restlessly all over the neighborhood.
chạy trời không khỏi nắng
Run from the sky, you won't escape the sun — no flight outruns what's owed.
chạy trời sao khỏi nắng
Run from the sky, you won't outrun the sun — what's coming will find you.
chả nên cơm cháo gì
Coming to neither rice nor porridge — effort that amounts to nothing at all.
chả ra ngô ra khoai
Neither corn nor sweet potato — coming to nothing definite; a muddle with no clear result.
chải gió gội mưa
Shy of the lamp, bashful before the fire — modesty that blushes even at light.
chải gió tắm mưa
Combed by wind, bathed by rain — a life out in the world's rough weather.
chảnh chó
Stuck-up with attitude — "chảnh" (snobby) sharpened by a rude tail; teasing among friends, cutting toward anyone else.
chấm hết
Spoken punctuation: "period." — slams the door on a topic; there is nothing after this sentence.
chấm hỏi
A spoken "?" — flat, one-beat bafflement borrowed from typing culture: the message made zero sense and here is your punctuation to prove it.
chấn thương cổ do giật mạnh
whiplash injury
chất như nước cất
Cool beyond impurity — a rhyming boast: as "chất" (stylish) as distilled water is pure. The rhyme is the point.
chậm mà chắc
Close to the English saying: “Slowly but surely.”.
chậu úp khôn soi
No sun reaches under the upturned basin — some secrets sit where no light can get.
chắc chắn rồi
"Absolutely / for sure" — commitment without wiggle room; the answer that lets people stop worrying.
chắp tay rủ áo
Folded hands and hanging sleeves — standing idly by when the matter is one's own responsibility.
chằm Zn
Depressed/„so done” — nerd-humor spelling: Zn is zinc (kẽm), so “chằm kẽm” ≈ “trầm cảm”.
chẳng chóng thì chầy
sooner or later
chẳng là
Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see chẳng, là.
chẳng lấy cũng khuấy cho hôi
If I can't have it, I'll spoil it for smelling — the jilted suitor's revenge of fouling what refused him.
chẳng ngon cũng sốt, chẳng tốt cũng mới
If not tasty, at least hot; if not fine, at least new — freshness redeems the humble offering.
chẳng trách
Used to demonstrate the inevitable result of what one has stated: no wonder
chẳng trúng cũng cọ bia
Missing the bullseye still grazes the target — a guess near enough to count.
chẳng ăn, chẳng chơi, nửa đời cũng ra ma
Neither feasting nor playing, half a life and you're a ghost regardless — thrift's memento mori: the grave takes savers too.
chẳng đặng đừng
Having no way not to — cornered into it; unavoidable.
chẳng ưa nói thừa cho bỏ
Disliking someone, you say a bit extra — spite always rounds the story up.
chặt to bung dừ
Chop it large, boil it soft — the coarse cook's shortcut; effort saved, texture lost.
chẽ tre nghe lóng
Split bamboo by the joint, judge news by the listening — verify along the grain before you commit the blade.
chếc gồi
Cutesy spelling of "chết rồi" — "I'm dead / uh-oh", a playful cry when something goes wrong.
chết kèn trống, sống dầu đèn
Dead: horns and drums; living: lamp-oil — each state of a person has its own running costs.
chết mê chết mệt
Head-over-heels smitten — infatuated to the point of losing all sense.
chết mệt
Dead tired — a hyperbolic "this is killing me" for exhaustion, or a dramatic "I can't even" when something is too funny or too much.
chết no hơn sống thèm
Better to die full than live craving — appetite's defiant motto against all abstinence.
chết rồi
"Oh no / I'm dead" — the realization noise: forgotten keys, missed deadlines, unsent messages; almost never about actual death.
chết thẳng cẳng
Dead with legs stretched straight — finality in one posture.
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.
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.
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