Tiếng Việt · Proverb Candidate

Đi thì vỡ nồi, ngồi thì vỡ niêu

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Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

To be in a difficult or precarious situation

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Ở trong tình huống khó khăn hoặc nguy hiểm

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: walking breaks the pot, sitting breaks the jar

Examples

Anh ấy luôn than thở đi thì vỡ nồi, ngồi thì vỡ niêu vì công việc không ổn địnhHe always complains that he's in a difficult situation, whether he's working or not, because his job is unstable

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 “Đi thì vỡ nồi, ngồi thì vỡ niêu” mean?

To be in a difficult or precarious situation Literally: walking breaks the pot, sitting breaks the jar

Is “Đi thì vỡ nồi, ngồi thì vỡ niêu” formal or informal?

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

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