Giữ được người ở, chứ không ai giữ được người đi
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
One can keep someone who wants to stay, but not someone who wants to leave
Examples
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 2026-08-06; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “Giữ được người ở, chứ không ai giữ được người đi” mean?
One can keep someone who wants to stay, but not someone who wants to leave Literally: Keep the person who stays, no one keeps the person who leaves
Is “Giữ được người ở, chứ không ai giữ được người đi” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.