Tiếng Việt · Proverb Candidate

Nước kia muốn chảy mà mương không đào

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Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

There is a desire to help, but circumstances prevent it

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

muốn giúp đỡ nhưng hoàn cảnh không cho phép

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: Water over there wants to flow but the ditch is not dug

Examples

Anh ấy muốn giúp đỡ, nhưng hoàn cảnh không cho phép, như nước kia muốn chảy mà mương không đào.He wants to help, but the circumstances do not allow it, like water over there wants to flow but the ditch is not dug.

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 “Nước kia muốn chảy mà mương không đào” mean?

There is a desire to help, but circumstances prevent it Literally: Water over there wants to flow but the ditch is not dug

Is “Nước kia muốn chảy mà mương không đào” formal or informal?

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

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