làm ruộng thì ra, làm nhà thì tốn
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Farming generates income, but building a house incurs expenses
Literally: do farming then have, do house then spend
Examples
Làm ruộng thì ra, làm nhà thì tốn, ông bà ta đã nói như vậyFarming generates income, but building a house incurs expenses, our ancestors said so
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 “làm ruộng thì ra, làm nhà thì tốn” mean?
Farming generates income, but building a house incurs expenses Literally: do farming then have, do house then spend
Is “làm ruộng thì ra, làm nhà thì tốn” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.