Cá tươi thì phải xem mang, người khôn xem lấy đôi hàng tóc mai

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Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

A person's true nature is revealed by their actions, not appearance

Literally: Fresh fish must look at the gills, smart people look at the temples

Examples

Cô ấy đẹp nhưng cá tươi thì phải xem mang, người khôn xem lấy đôi hàng tóc maiShe is beautiful but a person's true nature is revealed by their actions, not appearance

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

Sources & notes

Headword listed in the vdict.com proverb dictionary index (discovery source; headword only — no source content copied). Entered as candidate 2026-08-05; definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-08-05; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “Cá tươi thì phải xem mang, người khôn xem lấy đôi hàng tóc mai” mean?

A person's true nature is revealed by their actions, not appearance Literally: Fresh fish must look at the gills, smart people look at the temples

Is “Cá tươi thì phải xem mang, người khôn xem lấy đôi hàng tóc mai” formal or informal?

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

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