Browse all entries 83141

All languages English Tiếng Việt

yêu nhiều thì ốm, ôm nhiều thì yếu

love a lot and you will get sick, hug a lot and you will get weak (alluding to STD and impotence due to overindulgence)

Tiếng Việt Idiom Attested

yêu nên tốt, ghét nên xấu

Loved, all virtues; hated, all faults — affection edits the evidence.

Tiếng Việt Proverb Attested

yêu trẻ trẻ đến nhà

Love children and children fill your house — affection is the best-attended address.

Tiếng Việt Proverb Attested

yến tước khởi tri hồng hộc chí

Do swallows and sparrows know the swan's ambition — small wings can't read a great bird's flight plan.

Tiếng Việt Proverb Attested

yếu như sên

Weak as a snail — strength in homeopathic doses.

Tiếng Việt Idiom Attested

yểu điệu thục nữ

A graceful, gentle maiden — demure elegance in the classical mold.

Tiếng Việt Idiom Attested

z

Southern-flavored texting shortcut for “vậy” — so / like that. “sao z?” = what’s wrong / how come?

Tiếng Việt Slang Attested

à mà thôi

'Ah— never mind' — the art of raising a thing and instantly retracting it.

Tiếng Việt Slang Attested

á nam á nữ

Neither quite man nor quite woman — of ambiguous appearance; an unkind label for androgyny.

Tiếng Việt Idiom Attested

ác cái là

the risk is, the difficulty is (therefore unable to do the aforementioned thing)

Tiếng Việt Saying Attested

ác giả ác báo

what goes around comes around; you reap what you sow; as you sow, so shall you reap.

Tiếng Việt Idiom Attested

ác mồm ác miệng

Vicious-mouthed — habitually saying cruel, wounding things.

Tiếng Việt Idiom Attested

ác một cái là

synonym of ác cái là

Tiếng Việt Saying Attested

ác nhân sát đức

to act cruelly, brutally, without conscience

Tiếng Việt Idiom Attested

ác nhơn tự hữu ác nhơn ma

The wicked have their own wicked demons — one bad actor is ground down by another; evil wears out evil.

Tiếng Việt Proverb Attested

ác như hùm

extremely cruel and brutal

Tiếng Việt Idiom Attested

ách giữa đàng

The yoke in the middle of the road — trouble lying right in one's path.

Tiếng Việt Idiom Attested

ách giữa đàng mang qua cổ

The yoke lying mid-road, hauled onto one's own neck — trouble that was nobody's, volunteered for.

Tiếng Việt Proverb Attested

ái nam ái nữ

having an intersex genitalia or being intersex in general

Tiếng Việt Idiom Attested

ái nhơn như kỷ

Love others as yourself — the classical rule of measuring every act by your own wishes.

Tiếng Việt Proverb Attested

án ba ni bát mê hồng

Om mani padme hum in Vietnamese folk recitation — the Avalokiteśvara mantra as chanted at village altars.

Tiếng Việt Saying Attested

án binh bất động

to temporarily stand down one's army in order to wait and see how things develop

Tiếng Việt Idiom Attested

áo anh sứt chỉ đường tà Vợ anh chưa có, mẹ già chưa khâu

My shirt's hem thread is torn — I have no wife yet, and my old mother can no longer sew — the bachelor's artful complaint, fishing for a bride.

Tiếng Việt Saying Attested

áo gấm mặc đêm

A brocade robe worn at night — splendor no one is awake to see.

Tiếng Việt Proverb Attested

áo mặc qua đầu

The shirt still goes on over the head — hierarchy holds, whatever the fashion.

Tiếng Việt Proverb Attested

áo mặc sao qua khỏi đầu

No shirt goes on over the head — children don't overrule their parents.

Tiếng Việt Proverb Attested

áo rách vá vai

A torn shirt patched at the shoulder — poverty worn honestly and mended with care.

Tiếng Việt Idiom Attested

áo vắn, giũ chẳng nên dài

A short shirt can't be shaken longer — accept the measure of what you have.

Tiếng Việt Proverb Attested

âm cực dương hồi

At the end of yin, yang returns.

Tiếng Việt Idiom Attested

âm thịnh dương suy

having more females than males

Tiếng Việt Idiom Attested

ân trạch như núi

Kindness weighty as a mountain — a debt of gratitude past repaying.

Tiếng Việt Idiom Attested

âu cũng là cái liễn

It's all much the same pot — a punning shrug that what happened was bound to be so, and one may as well accept it.

Tiếng Việt Idiom Attested

ét ô ét

“S.O.S!” — mock distress call for funny emergencies.

Tiếng Việt Slang Attested

ích kỉ hại nhơn

Profit to self, harm to others — gain whose invoice goes to one's neighbors.

Tiếng Việt Idiom Attested

ít thầy đầy đãy

Fewer monks, fuller alms-bags — the fewer who share, the fatter each portion.

Tiếng Việt Proverb Attested

ít đường

"Less sugar" — the modern café request; Vietnamese drinks run sweet, and this phrase is how locals dial it down.

Tiếng Việt Common phrase Attested

ôm cây đợi thỏ

to be conservative; to resist change and innovation; to stick to old principles

Tiếng Việt Idiom Attested

ôm hàng

Left hugging the goods — stuck holding a position, usually bought near the top and often on someone else’s urging; bag-holding, Vietnamese edition.

Tiếng Việt Slang Attested

ôm rơm rặm bụng

to take on unnecessary burden; to bring trouble upon oneself

Tiếng Việt Idiom Attested

ôn cố nhi tri tân

Warm the old to know the new — revision is where discovery lives.

Tiếng Việt Proverb Attested

ôn cố tri tân

One should be able to derive new understanding while revising what one has learned.

Tiếng Việt Idiom Attested

ôn, lương, cung, kiệm, nhượng

Be cordial, kind, courteous, modest, and deferential.

Tiếng Việt Idiom Attested

ông chẳng bà chuộc

He says 'chẳng', she says 'chuộc' — two people forever at cross purposes, like the toad-call pair.

Tiếng Việt Idiom Attested

ông già bà cả

The old folks and elders — the aged, taken together with respect.

Tiếng Việt Idiom Attested

ông nói gà, bà nói vịt

he said, she said

Tiếng Việt Saying Attested

ông tha mà bà chẳng tha, đánh một cái lụt mồng ba tháng mười

Grandfather forgives, grandmother doesn't — the tenth-month flood that always comes anyway; mercy overruled at home.

Tiếng Việt Proverb Attested

ông thông bà phán

The clerk and the madam commissioner — the petty officialdom that swaggers around an office.

Tiếng Việt Idiom Attested

ông tám

A man who gossips like a market auntie — the male spin on "bà tám", for guys who narrate everyone's business.

Tiếng Việt Slang Attested

ông ăn chả, bà ăn nem

he eats chả, she eats nem

Tiếng Việt Saying Attested

ù té quyền

To run away, flee, or bail out of an awkward, difficult, or dangerous situation as fast as possible — always said with a wink.

Tiếng Việt Slang Attested

ú na ú nấn

Plump and podgy — soft, chubby rolls everywhere.

Tiếng Việt Idiom Attested

úp bô

To dump the potty on someone — hype a stock (or any scheme) until followers pile in, then sell into their buying and leave them the loss; the betrayal move of pump-and-dump culture, now used for any bait-and-dump.

Tiếng Việt Slang Attested

ý hạp tâm đầu

Minds meeting and hearts agreeing — perfectly matched in temper and intent.

Tiếng Việt Idiom Attested

ý nhạc tâm tình

Music's thought, heart's feeling — melody and emotion moving as one.

Tiếng Việt Idiom Attested

Ăn miếng trả miếng

Eat one, pay one. Tit for tat .

Tiếng Việt Proverb Attested

ăn bơ làm biếng

Loafing and shirking — idleness practiced as a discipline.

Tiếng Việt Idiom Attested

ăn bớt bát, nói bớt nhời

One bowl fewer at the table, one word fewer in the mouth — moderation twice over.

Tiếng Việt Proverb Attested

ăn chi chưa

The everyday Central-Vietnamese hello: literally asking whether you have eaten yet, but really just a warm way of checking in — the expected answer is a smile, not a menu.

Tiếng Việt Saying Attested

ăn cho sống không phải sống mà ăn

Eat to live, don't live to eat — appetite demoted to staff, not management.

Tiếng Việt Proverb Attested

ăn cháo đá bát

To be ungrateful — to turn against or abandon the very person who helped you.

Tiếng Việt Idiom Attested