Đánh giặc thì đánh giữa sông, đừng đánh chỗ cạn mắc chông mà chìm

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Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

Attack the enemy when they are most vulnerable

Literally: Fight the enemy in the middle of the river, don't fight in shallow water with submerged stakes and sink

Examples

Chúng ta nên đánh giặc thì đánh giữa sông, đừng đánh chỗ cạn mắc chông mà chìmWe should attack the enemy when they are most vulnerable, not when they are in a strong position

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 2026-08-08; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “Đánh giặc thì đánh giữa sông, đừng đánh chỗ cạn mắc chông mà chìm” mean?

Attack the enemy when they are most vulnerable Literally: Fight the enemy in the middle of the river, don't fight in shallow water with submerged stakes and sink

Is “Đánh giặc thì đánh giữa sông, đừng đánh chỗ cạn mắc chông mà chìm” formal or informal?

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

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