hay thì khen, hèn thì chê
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Praise the good and criticize the bad
Literally: praise the talented, criticize the inferior
Examples
Hay thì khen, hèn thì chê, như vậy mới xây dựng được tập thể tốtPraise the good and criticize the bad, that's how we build a good team
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 “hay thì khen, hèn thì chê” mean?
Praise the good and criticize the bad Literally: praise the talented, criticize the inferior
Is “hay thì khen, hèn thì chê” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.