Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Sweet and bitter, joys and sorrows: "ngọt bùi" is a compound adjective describing the full range of life's experiences, encompassing both the sweet, pleasant moments and the bitter, difficult ones. It often implies shared experiences, especially within a family or close relationship.
   • Shared joys and hardships: It conveys the idea of sticking together through all of life's ups and downs, tasting both sweetness and bitterness side by side.

Usage Examples

• Adjective:
  • Vợ chồng phải biết chia sẻ ngọt bùi với nhau. (Husband and wife must know how to share life's joys and sorrows with each other.)
  • Cuộc sống gia đình có ngọt có bùi. (Family life has its sweet and its bitter moments.)
  • Họ đã cùng nhau trải qua bao ngọt bùi. (They have gone through so many sweet and bitter experiences together.)

Advanced Usage

• "chia sẻ ngọt bùi": to share life's joys and sorrows, to stick together through thick and thin.

  • Tình bạn thật sự là biết chia sẻ ngọt bùi. (True friendship is knowing how to share life's joys and sorrows.)

• "có ngọt có bùi": (idiomatic) to have both good and bad times; life has its ups and downs.

  • Đời người có ngọt có bùi. (A person's life has its sweet and bitter moments.)

Variants and Related Words

• Ngọt (adj): sweet, pleasant.

  • Trái cây này rất ngọt. (This fruit is very sweet.)

• Bùi (adj): rich, savory, nutty (taste); sometimes used poetically to mean "bitter" in contrast to "ngọt" in the idiom.

  • Hạt dẻ có vị bùi. (Chestnuts have a rich, nutty flavor.)

Synonyms

• Sướng khổ: pleasure and suffering.
• Vui buồn: happiness and sadness.
• Hỉ nộ ái ố (a four-word idiom from Sino-Vietnamese): joy, anger, love, hatred (the full range of human emotions).

Related Idioms

• Đồng cam cộng khổ: to share weal and woe; to share hardships (similar in spirit but emphasizes difficulty more).

  • Họ là đôi bạn đồng cam cộng khổ. (They are friends who share weal and woe.)

• Có bùi có ngọt: a variant of "có ngọt có bùi", meaning the same.

  • Cuộc sống có bùi có ngọt mới là cuộc sống. (A life with both bitterness and sweetness is a real life.)

1. sweet
   • Nỗi ngọt bùi
     The sweets
   • Những nỗi ngọt bùi và cay đắng
     The sweets and the bitters of life