Idioms & Proverbs
IdiomVN pairs English expressions with Vietnamese ones. Some of them are idioms, some are proverbs, and the two words are often used loosely. This page describes how they are usually told apart, and how the pairs on this site are put together.
Contents
What is an idiom?
An idiom usually refers to a fixed group of words whose meaning is not simply the sum of its parts. Someone who hits the nail on the head has not touched a nail; they have said exactly the right thing.
Idioms are usually short phrases rather than full sentences. They sit inside a sentence and do a job there, much like a single word: My advice fell on deaf ears.
Vietnamese has the same kind of expression, called thành ngữ. Many of them draw on a picture from everyday life.
What is a proverb?
A proverb is usually a short, complete sentence that passes on a piece of advice or experience. It can stand on its own, and it often sounds like something people have been saying for a long time.
Practice makes perfect is a whole statement: it says something about the world, and it needs nothing around it to make sense.
In Vietnamese, sayings like this are called tục ngữ. Many of them have a rhythm or a rhyme that makes them easy to remember.
Idiom or proverb: the difference
The simplest way to tell them apart is to ask whether the expression is a complete thought. An idiom is usually a piece of a sentence; a proverb is usually a sentence in itself.
| Idiom | Proverb | |
|---|---|---|
| Form | A phrase | A complete sentence |
| What it does | Describes a situation or a person, often through an image | Offers advice or a lesson from experience |
| In use | Part of a sentence | Stands on its own |
| Example | Fall on deaf ears | Practice makes perfect |
The line is not always sharp. Some expressions sit somewhere between the two, and not every source sorts them the same way. On IdiomVN, the word “idiom” is used loosely to cover both.
How IdiomVN pairs expressions
Each entry pairs an English expression with a Vietnamese one that is close in meaning. A few notes on how those pairs are chosen.
Natural equivalents, not word-for-word translations
A word-for-word translation of break the ice would describe someone breaking ice, which is not what a Vietnamese speaker would say in that situation. We look instead for the way a Vietnamese speaker would naturally put it.
Sometimes that is a well-known saying, like Có công mài sắt, có ngày nên kim for Practice makes perfect. Sometimes Vietnamese has no fixed saying for the idea, and the closest natural wording is a plain phrase.
An expression and its equivalent do not always belong to the same kind, either: an English proverb can be closest to a Vietnamese thành ngữ, and the other way round.
More than one Vietnamese expression
Some English expressions have more than one Vietnamese counterpart. When they do, the entry shows one main expression and lists the others under “Also said in Vietnamese”.
- Gieo gió gặt bão. — You reap what you sow; also: Ác giả ác báo.
Each entry also explains the meaning in plain words, so a pairing is a suggestion to consider rather than the only possible reading.
Every pairing on the site is listed on the Idioms page.