Tiếng Việt · Proverb Candidate

Đầu năm buôn muối, cuối năm buôn vôi

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Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

Starting with a good deed, but ending with a bad one

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

bắt đầu tốt nhưng kết thúc tệ

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: Selling salt at the beginning of the year, selling lime at the end of the year

Examples

Anh ấy bắt đầu dự án với tâm huyết nhưng cuối cùng lại làm hỏng mọi thứ, đúng như câu đầu năm buôn muối, cuối năm buôn vôiHe started the project with enthusiasm but ended up ruining everything, just like the proverb 'starting the year selling salt, ending the year selling lime'

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 2026-08-09; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “Đầu năm buôn muối, cuối năm buôn vôi” mean?

Starting with a good deed, but ending with a bad one Literally: Selling salt at the beginning of the year, selling lime at the end of the year

Is “Đầu năm buôn muối, cuối năm buôn vôi” formal or informal?

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

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