Chinese · Idiom Attested

弄假成真

nòng jiǎ chéng zhēn

In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

Something that began as a pretence, a joke or an act ends up becoming real, usually without anyone intending it. Often said of pretend couples who actually fall in love.

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Việc vốn chỉ là giả vờ, đùa cợt hay đóng kịch rốt cuộc lại thành thật, thường là ngoài ý muốn. Hay dùng cho những cặp giả làm người yêu rồi yêu nhau thật.

Literally: play at the false until it becomes real

Examples

两个演员在戏里演夫妻，后来弄假成真了。Liǎng ge yǎnyuán zài xì lǐ yǎn fūqī, hòulái nòng jiǎ chéng zhēn le.The two actors played husband and wife on screen, and later it became the real thing.

Editorial example (illustrative, not a corpus attestation) — awaiting a native-speaker check

Sources & notes

Hán-Việt bridge batch 062 (2026-11-13). Headword, Traditional form and pinyin checked against CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0) source ↗ · Hán-Việt reading: Unihan kVietnamese source ↗ ; en.wiktionary Vietnamese entries via kaikki.org extract, snapshot 2026-07-31 (CC BY-SA 4.0): Hán-Việt reading 假 = giả; etymology of “lộng giả thành chân” = 弄假成真 · Vietnamese cognate: Idiomer entry “lộng giả thành chân” (long-gia-thanh-chan). Definition, literal gloss and example sentence are original; the example has not had a native-speaker check yet.

Equivalents & related

Hán-Việt cognate lộng giả thành chân fantasy becomes reality Tiếng Việt

Common questions

What does “弄假成真” mean?

Something that began as a pretence, a joke or an act ends up becoming real, usually without anyone intending it. Often said of pretend couples who actually fall in love. Literally: play at the false until it becomes real

Is “弄假成真” formal or informal?

弄假成真 is generally neutral.

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