vay nên nợ, đỡ nên ơn
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Helping others can create obligations, not gratitude
Literally: borrow should debt, help should favor
Examples
Anh ấy đã giúp tôi rất nhiều, nhưng tôi chỉ cảm thấy vay nên nợ, đỡ nên ơnHe helped me a lot, but I just feel obligated, not grateful
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Discovered via Nam ngạn chích cẩm (Phạm Quang Sán, 1918; public domain, via vi.wikisource); retrieved 2026-08-01. Source: source ↗ Attested in Nam ngạn chích cẩm (Phạm Quang Sán, 1918). Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-08-01; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “vay nên nợ, đỡ nên ơn” mean?
Helping others can create obligations, not gratitude Literally: borrow should debt, help should favor
Is “vay nên nợ, đỡ nên ơn” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.