Ngọc bất trác, bất thành khí
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
A talented person must be polished to become useful
Người có tài năng phải được rèn luyện để trở nên hữu ích
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Examples
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 “Ngọc bất trác, bất thành khí” mean?
A talented person must be polished to become useful Literally: Jade unpolished, not become instrument
Is “Ngọc bất trác, bất thành khí” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.