Tiếng Việt · Proverb Attested

ăn cho sống không phải sống mà ăn

🎙 Say it

In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

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

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Ăn để sống, không sống để ăn

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: eat for living, not live for eating

Sources & notes

Discovered via Nam ngạn chích cẩm (Phạm Quang Sán, 1918; public domain, via vi.wikisource); retrieved 2026-08-01. Source: source ↗ Attested in Nam ngạn chích cẩm (Phạm Quang Sán, 1918). Definition is an original editorial synthesis, not copied from the source.

Common questions

What does “ăn cho sống không phải sống mà ăn” mean?

Eat to live, don't live to eat — appetite demoted to staff, not management. Literally: eat for living, not live for eating

Is “ăn cho sống không phải sống mà ăn” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

👁 Views 0 today 0 past 7 days 0 this month 0 all time