chú tiểu mười ba, ông sư mười bốn
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
A young person may have more knowledge than an older one
Literally: 13-year-old novice monk, 14-year-old Buddhist master
Examples
Cậu bé chỉ 12 tuổi nhưng chú tiểu mười ba, ông sư mười bốn, giải được bài toán khóThe 12-year-old boy was young but he could solve the difficult math problem, proving that a young person may have more knowledge than an older one
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
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 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 “chú tiểu mười ba, ông sư mười bốn” mean?
A young person may have more knowledge than an older one Literally: 13-year-old novice monk, 14-year-old Buddhist master
Is “chú tiểu mười ba, ông sư mười bốn” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.