Tiếng Việt · Proverb Attested

trăm nghe không bằng một thấy

In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

Hearing about something a hundred times is not worth seeing it once — direct experience beats hearsay.

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

trải nghiệm trực tiếp quý hơn lời nói

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: A hundred hearings do not equal one seeing.

How to use it

✓ Use it when

Urging someone to verify with their own eyes; introducing a demonstration.

Where it’s used: Used Toàn quốc & hải ngoại · Vietnam-wide & diaspora

Examples

Đừng tin ảnh mạng, trăm nghe không bằng một thấy — đi Hà Giang một lần đi.Don’t trust internet photos; a hundred hearings aren’t one seeing — go to Hà Giang once.

Editorial example (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Equivalents & related

Near equivalent seeing is believing You can only really accept that something is true once you have seen it yourself. English Near equivalent trăm nghe không bằng mắt thấy a picture is worth a thousand words; seeing is believing Tiếng Việt · via seeing is believing

Lighter cards are two steps away in the meaning graph — equivalents of equivalents, reached via the entry shown on the card.

Common questions

What does “trăm nghe không bằng một thấy” mean?

Hearing about something a hundred times is not worth seeing it once — direct experience beats hearsay. Literally: A hundred hearings do not equal one seeing.

Is “trăm nghe không bằng một thấy” formal or informal?

trăm nghe không bằng một thấy is generally neutral; connotation: pragmatic.

What is the closest equivalent?

“seeing is believing” (English) — near equivalent.