mau miệng ăn, thưa miệng nói
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Be generous when giving, but stingy with promises.
Literally: generous mouth eats, sparse mouth speaks
Examples
Anh ấy mau miệng ăn, thưa miệng nói nên không ai tin tưởng.He is generous when giving, but stingy with promises, so nobody trusts him.
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 “mau miệng ăn, thưa miệng nói” mean?
Be generous when giving, but stingy with promises. Literally: generous mouth eats, sparse mouth speaks
Is “mau miệng ăn, thưa miệng nói” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.