Một tiên là chín, mười thưng, mẹ con nhịn đói vì chưng không tiền

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Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

Having one talented person is better than having many mediocre ones

Literally: One fairy is nine, ten pots, mother and child starve because of no money

Examples

Gia đình tôi chỉ có một người con giỏi nên mọi người thường nói một tiên là chín, mười thưngMy family only has one talented child, so people often say one fairy is nine, ten pots

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 2026-08-07; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “Một tiên là chín, mười thưng, mẹ con nhịn đói vì chưng không tiền” mean?

Having one talented person is better than having many mediocre ones Literally: One fairy is nine, ten pots, mother and child starve because of no money

Is “Một tiên là chín, mười thưng, mẹ con nhịn đói vì chưng không tiền” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

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