Ngọc kia chuốt mãi cũng tròn, sắt kia mài mãi cũng còn nên kim

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Meaning · English

Patience and persistence can refine and improve anyone

Literally: that jade sharpened will become round, that iron ground will become a needle

Examples

Người ta nói ngọc kia chuốt mãi cũng tròn, sắt kia mài mãi cũng còn nên kim, nên anh ấy không bỏ cuộcPeople say that with patience and persistence, anyone can improve, so he didn't give up

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 kia chuốt mãi cũng tròn, sắt kia mài mãi cũng còn nên kim” mean?

Patience and persistence can refine and improve anyone Literally: that jade sharpened will become round, that iron ground will become a needle

Is “Ngọc kia chuốt mãi cũng tròn, sắt kia mài mãi cũng còn nên kim” formal or informal?

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

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