Tiếng Việt · Proverb Candidate

Thứ nhất thì chết mất cha, thứ nhì buôn vã, thứ ba ngược đò

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Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

Things go from bad to worse

Literally: First die father, second sell wife, third go against the current

Examples

Sau khi mất việc thì gặp tai nạn, thật là thứ nhất thì chết mất cha, thứ nhì buôn vã, thứ ba ngược đòAfter losing his job, he had an accident, it's really things going from bad to worse

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 “Thứ nhất thì chết mất cha, thứ nhì buôn vã, thứ ba ngược đò” mean?

Things go from bad to worse Literally: First die father, second sell wife, third go against the current

Is “Thứ nhất thì chết mất cha, thứ nhì buôn vã, thứ ba ngược đò” formal or informal?

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

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