do1 jat1 si6 zoeng2 jat1 zi3多一事長一智多一事长一智
Jyutpingdo1 jat1 si6 zoeng2 jat1 zi3
Yaledō yāt sih jéung yāt ji
Definition
To grow wiser from experience or mistakes.
colloquialother
How it's used
This idiom is frequently used to comfort someone who has just encountered a setback or made a mistake. It reframes a negative situation as a valuable opportunity for personal growth. People often add the particle 啫 at the end to downplay the severity of the mistake.
Examples
Lost money this time, just treat it as a lesson learned.
Related words
Common mistake
Learners often confuse this with the Mandarin version 長一智, but in Cantonese, it is almost exclusively used as a full six-character phrase. Using only parts of it will sound unnatural to native speakers.
Grammar color guide
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Grammar guides
- In 30 secondsThe whole language at a glance. No tenses, no plurals, six tones, sentence particles. Read this before you dive into any specific topic.
- ParticlesSentence particles add tone, emotion, and nuance. Learn the most common particles in Cantonese and how to use them.
- Possession (嘅)How to say my, your, and his, and how to link a describing word to a noun, all with the little word 嘅 (ge3).
