quả chín thì ngắt, quả xanh thì đừng
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Take what is ready and available
Literally: ripe fruit then pick, green fruit then don't
Examples
Cô ấy không muốn vội vàng trong việc này, quả chín thì ngắt, quả xanh thì đừngShe didn't want to rush into this, take what is ready and available
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 “quả chín thì ngắt, quả xanh thì đừng” mean?
Take what is ready and available Literally: ripe fruit then pick, green fruit then don't
Is “quả chín thì ngắt, quả xanh thì đừng” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.