người sống về cơm, cá sống về nước
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
People need food to survive, just like fish need water.
Literally: people live on rice, fish live on water
Examples
Con người và cá đều cần môi trường để tồn tại, như người sống về cơm, cá sống về nước.Humans and fish both need an environment to survive, just like people live on rice, fish live on water.
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 “người sống về cơm, cá sống về nước” mean?
People need food to survive, just like fish need water. Literally: people live on rice, fish live on water
Is “người sống về cơm, cá sống về nước” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.