Quen biết dạ, lạ hỏi tên

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Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

Be friendly and courteous to familiar people, but formal with strangers

Literally: Familiar know evening, strange ask name

Examples

Khi gặp người quen, anh luôn cười và nói chuyện thân thiện, nhưng khi gặp người lạ, anh sẽ hỏi tên trướcWhen meeting familiar people, he always smiles and chats friendly, but when meeting strangers, he will ask for their name first

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 “Quen biết dạ, lạ hỏi tên” mean?

Be friendly and courteous to familiar people, but formal with strangers Literally: Familiar know evening, strange ask name

Is “Quen biết dạ, lạ hỏi tên” formal or informal?

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

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