em ngã chị nưng, chị ngã em bưng miệng
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
One person's mistake leads to another's trouble
Literally: younger sibling falls, older sibling gets scolded
Examples
Anh ấy nói 'em ngã chị nưng, chị ngã em bưng miệng' khi thấy hai đồng nghiệp liên tục gây rắc rối cho nhauHe said 'em ngã chị nưng, chị ngã em bưng miệng' when he saw two colleagues constantly causing trouble for each other
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Discovered via Nam ngạn chích cẩm (Phạm Quang Sán, 1918; public domain, via vi.wikisource); retrieved 2026-08-01. Source: source ↗ Attested in Nam ngạn chích cẩm (Phạm Quang Sán, 1918). 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 “em ngã chị nưng, chị ngã em bưng miệng” mean?
One person's mistake leads to another's trouble Literally: younger sibling falls, older sibling gets scolded
Is “em ngã chị nưng, chị ngã em bưng miệng” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.