một chữ cũng là thầy, nửa chữ cũng là thầy
In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.
Whoever taught you one word is your teacher — half a word, still your teacher: gratitude to those who taught you is owed in full no matter how small the lesson. The vernacular twin of the Sino-Vietnamese «nhất tự vi sư, bán tự vi sư».
Register: neutralEra: traditional – present
Examples
Editorial example (batch 059)
Sources & notes
Number-idiom class scrape (2026-08-11): violet.vn exercise list + voh.com.vn/song-dep/tuc-ngu-viet-nam-379232.html + vndoc.com roundup. Definition original.
Common questions
What does “một chữ cũng là thầy, nửa chữ cũng là thầy” mean?
Whoever taught you one word is your teacher — half a word, still your teacher: gratitude to those who taught you is owed in full no matter how small the lesson. The vernacular twin of the Sino-Vietnamese «nhất tự vi sư, bán tự vi sư». Literally: one word is a teacher, half a word is a teacher
Is “một chữ cũng là thầy, nửa chữ cũng là thầy” formal or informal?
một chữ cũng là thầy, nửa chữ cũng là thầy is generally neutral.