xấu mã tốt duyên
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
A bad start leads to a good ending
Literally: bad horse good fate
Examples
Cuộc đời anh ấy xấu mã tốt duyên, cuối cùng cũng thành đạtHis life was bad at the beginning but good in the end, and he finally succeeded
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 “xấu mã tốt duyên” mean?
A bad start leads to a good ending Literally: bad horse good fate
Is “xấu mã tốt duyên” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.