Phá lá cây thì dễ, phá chồi cây lặc lè chẳng xong

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Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

It's easy to destroy something in its early stages, but harder to stop it once it has started to grow.

Literally: Breaking a leaf is easy, breaking a sprouting seedling is not done

Examples

Chúng ta không nên phá lá cây thì dễ, phá chồi cây lặc lè chẳng xong khi nói về dự án mới.We should not say it's easy to destroy something in its early stages, but harder to stop it once it has started to grow when talking about the new project.

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 “Phá lá cây thì dễ, phá chồi cây lặc lè chẳng xong” mean?

It's easy to destroy something in its early stages, but harder to stop it once it has started to grow. Literally: Breaking a leaf is easy, breaking a sprouting seedling is not done

Is “Phá lá cây thì dễ, phá chồi cây lặc lè chẳng xong” formal or informal?

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

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