Khôn cho người ta rái, dại cho người ta thương, dở dở ương ương tổ người ta ghét
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Be clever and people will fear you, be foolish and people will pity you, but be annoying and people will hate you
Bị thông minh làm sợ, bị dại làm thương tiếc, nhưng bị khó chịu làm ghét
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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 “Khôn cho người ta rái, dại cho người ta thương, dở dở ương ương tổ người ta ghét” mean?
Be clever and people will fear you, be foolish and people will pity you, but be annoying and people will hate you Literally: Clever for people to fear, foolish for people to love, half and half and people hate
Is “Khôn cho người ta rái, dại cho người ta thương, dở dở ương ương tổ người ta ghét” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.