Đói thì ăn khế ăn sung, trông thấy mẹ chồng thì nuốt chẳng trôi

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Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

When faced with a difficult situation, one must endure and tolerate it

Literally: When hungry, eat khế or sung, seeing mother-in-law, swallow but can't get it down

Examples

Anh ấy luôn nhớ câu Đói thì ăn khế ăn sung, trông thấy mẹ chồng thì nuốt chẳng trôi mỗi khi gặp mẹ vợHe always remembers the proverb when he meets his mother-in-law

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 “Đói thì ăn khế ăn sung, trông thấy mẹ chồng thì nuốt chẳng trôi” mean?

When faced with a difficult situation, one must endure and tolerate it Literally: When hungry, eat khế or sung, seeing mother-in-law, swallow but can't get it down

Is “Đói thì ăn khế ăn sung, trông thấy mẹ chồng thì nuốt chẳng trôi” formal or informal?

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

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