Tiếng Việt · Proverb Candidate

Thịt không hành, canh không mắm

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Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

Something is lacking without the other

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

thiếu thứ này thì không hoàn chỉnh với thứ kia

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: Meat without onions, soup without fish sauce

Examples

Cô ấy rất giỏi nhưng khi làm việc độc lập thì không hiệu quả, thật sự thịt không hành, canh không mắmShe's very skilled but when working independently, she's not effective, it's really like meat without onions, soup without fish sauce

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 2026-08-08; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “Thịt không hành, canh không mắm” mean?

Something is lacking without the other Literally: Meat without onions, soup without fish sauce

Is “Thịt không hành, canh không mắm” formal or informal?

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

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