chuối đằng sau, cau đằng trước
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Something unpleasant is followed by something even worse
Literally: banana behind, areca in front
Examples
Tôi vừa bị mất việc, chuối đằng sau, cau đằng trước, hôm sau tôi lại bị ốmI just lost my job, and the next day I got sick
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 “chuối đằng sau, cau đằng trước” mean?
Something unpleasant is followed by something even worse Literally: banana behind, areca in front
Is “chuối đằng sau, cau đằng trước” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.