Tiếng Việt · Proverb Candidate

Hoài lời mà nói với trâu, đạn đâu bắn sẻ, gươm đâu chém ruồi

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Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

Wasting effort on something useless

Literally: talking many words to a buffalo, where is the bullet to shoot a sparrow, where is the sword to kill a fly

Examples

Anh ấy nói nhiều nhưng không ai nghe, hoài lời mà nói với trâu.He talks a lot but nobody listens, wasting words on useless talk.

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 “Hoài lời mà nói với trâu, đạn đâu bắn sẻ, gươm đâu chém ruồi” mean?

Wasting effort on something useless Literally: talking many words to a buffalo, where is the bullet to shoot a sparrow, where is the sword to kill a fly

Is “Hoài lời mà nói với trâu, đạn đâu bắn sẻ, gươm đâu chém ruồi” formal or informal?

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

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