Tiếng Việt · Proverb Candidate

con tỏ cha tớ tỏ thầy

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

A child's behavior reveals their parents' character, a student's reveals their teacher's

Literally: child reveals father, servant reveals master

Examples

Con tôi tỏ cha tớ tỏ thầy, nên tôi phải dạy dỗ con mình thật tốtMy child reveals my character, so I must teach my child well

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): “Nghĩa là can danh phạm ngãi.” 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 “con tỏ cha tớ tỏ thầy” mean?

A child's behavior reveals their parents' character, a student's reveals their teacher's Literally: child reveals father, servant reveals master

Is “con tỏ cha tớ tỏ thầy” formal or informal?

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