Tiếng Việt · Proverb Candidate

nằm đất hàng hương, hơn nằm giường hàng cá

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

It's better to be poor with good neighbors than rich with bad ones

Literally: sleep on the ground among fragrant herbs, better than sleep on a bed among fishy smell

Examples

Tôi thích ở nhà nhỏ gần người tốt hơn là ở biệt thự gần những người khó ưaI prefer to live in a small house near good people than in a mansion near unpleasant ones

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 “nằm đất hàng hương, hơn nằm giường hàng cá” mean?

It's better to be poor with good neighbors than rich with bad ones Literally: sleep on the ground among fragrant herbs, better than sleep on a bed among fishy smell

Is “nằm đất hàng hương, hơn nằm giường hàng cá” formal or informal?

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