thẻ vàng hoặc thẻ đỏ
yellow card or red card
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All languages English Tiếng Việt
thế cô lực bạc
Isolated in position, thin in strength — no allies, no reserves.
thế cơ à
Northern "oh, is that so?" — the particle "cơ" loads the surprise, anywhere from genuine amazement to raised-eyebrow disbelief.
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 nhỉ
A reflective Northern "huh, true enough" — soft agreement that dawns on you mid-conversation rather than being declared.
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.
thủ chu đãi thố
Guarding the stump, awaiting the rabbit — one accident enshrined as a strategy.
thủ khẩu như bình
Guard the mouth like a stoppered jar — sealed speech, walled intentions.
thủ thân vi đại
Guarding one's own body is the great charge — self-preservation as first duty.
thủ thử lưỡng đoan
The mouse at the burrow's lip, in and out — commitment that pokes its head and pulls it back.
thủ vỉ tương ứng
Head and tail answering each other — the two-headed snake's defense; touch either end, the other strikes.
thủy chỉ thanh tắc vô ngư, nhơn chí sát tắc vô đồ
Water too clear keeps no fish; a person too exacting keeps no friends — every bond needs a little silt.
thủy khả dĩ tải châu, diệc khả dĩ phúc châu
Water carries the boat and water capsizes it — the people bear the throne, and can turn it over.
thủy lưu tại hạ
Water flows to the lowest place — and so does every loss; the underling's share is obedience and the bill.
thủy trung lao nguyệt
Trawling the moon from the water — labor spent on a reflection.
thứ nhất vợ dại trong nhà, thứ nhì nhà dột, thứ ba rựa cùn
The three domestic miseries, ranked: a foolish spouse, a leaky roof, a blunt machete — the folk list of everyday torments a man grumbles he cannot escape. A relic of its era about marriage, quoted today mostly for the comic ranking.
thức khuya dậy sớm
Late to bed, early to rise — industry measured in lost sleep.
thức khuya mới biết đêm dài, ở lâu mới biết lòng người có nhân
Stay up late and learn how long the night is; live with someone long and learn whether their heart is kind — duration is the only test.
thừa nước đục thả câu
to fish in troubled waters
thừa phong phá lãng
Riding the wind, breaking the waves — ambition under full sail.
thử nhập thương ngao
The mouse into the granary — landed amid plenty, the Sino-Vietnamese cousin of the mouse in the rice jar.
thử được không
"Can I try it?" — clothes, shoes, a taste at the market; permission-first plus a smile opens every fitting room.
thực bất sung trường
Food that never fills the gut — poverty measured at the stomach.
ti cung khuất tất
Bowed torso and bended knee — servility in its full Sino-Vietnamese dress.
ti hí mắt lươn
Slit eel's eyes — the narrow gaze folk wisdom assigns to the untrustworthy.
ti-hí mắt lươn
So awful even ghosts complain and demons sulk — repellent past the supernatural's own standards.
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