thua thầy một vạn không bằng kém bạn một li
In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.
Also seen as: thua trời một vạn không bằng thua bạn một ly
Trailing the master by ten thousand stings less than trailing a friend by a hair — envy runs on proximity: we measure ourselves against peers, not paragons.
Register: informalEra: traditional – present
Examples
Editorial example (batch 059)
Sources & notes
Number-idiom class scrape (2026-08-11): violet.vn exercise list + voh.com.vn/song-dep/tuc-ngu-viet-nam-379232.html + vndoc.com roundup. Definition original.
Common questions
What does “thua thầy một vạn không bằng kém bạn một li” mean?
Trailing the master by ten thousand stings less than trailing a friend by a hair — envy runs on proximity: we measure ourselves against peers, not paragons. Literally: losing to the teacher by ten thousand beats losing to a friend by a millimeter
Is “thua thầy một vạn không bằng kém bạn một li” formal or informal?
thua thầy một vạn không bằng kém bạn một li is generally informal.