khéo vá may, vụng chầy cối
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Being good at one thing does not mean being good at another
Literally: skillful at sewing, clumsy at pounding rice
Examples
Cô ấy khéo vá may, vụng chầy cối nên không làm được công việc mớiShe is good at sewing, but clumsy at other tasks, so she can't do the new job
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 “khéo vá may, vụng chầy cối” mean?
Being good at one thing does not mean being good at another Literally: skillful at sewing, clumsy at pounding rice
Is “khéo vá may, vụng chầy cối” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.