Tiếng Việt · Proverb Candidate

buôn tay mặt, bắt tay trái

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

To be uncoordinated or clumsy

Literally: to sell with the right hand, to catch with the left hand

Examples

Anh ấy buôn tay mặt, bắt tay trái khi cố gắng nấu ăn.He was uncoordinated when trying to cook.

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Discovered via Tục ngữ, cổ ngữ, gia ngôn (Huỳnh Tịnh Của, 1897; public domain, via vi.wikisource); retrieved 2026-08-01. Source: source ↗ Attested in Tục ngữ, cổ ngữ, gia ngôn (Huỳnh Tịnh Của, 1897). Source gloss (Vietnamese): “Liền tay, xấu tốt cắt nghĩa cũng thông.” Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-08-01; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “buôn tay mặt, bắt tay trái” mean?

To be uncoordinated or clumsy Literally: to sell with the right hand, to catch with the left hand

Is “buôn tay mặt, bắt tay trái” formal or informal?

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