Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Ungrateful: Describes a person who does not show thanks or return kindness, especially to someone who has helped or cared for them.
   • Mean / Shabby / Unkind: Describes cruel, unfeeling, or neglectful behavior towards others, often involving a betrayal of trust or affection.

Usage Examples

• Adjective:
  • Anh ta thật tệ bạc khi bỏ mặc cha mẹ già. (He is truly ungrateful for abandoning his elderly parents.)
  • Cô ấy cảm thấy bị đối xử một cách tệ bạc. (She felt treated in a very mean/shabby way.)
  • Sự tệ bạc của họ khiến ai cũng thất vọng. (Their unkindness disappointed everyone.)

Advanced Usage

• The word often implies a moral judgment and is used in contexts of broken relationships, betrayal, or a severe lack of human decency and reciprocity.
  • Lòng người sao có thể tệ bạc đến thế? (How can a person's heart be so cruel and ungrateful?)

Variants and Related Words

• Bội bạc (adj): Faithless, treacherous, perfidious. Often used similarly to "tệ bạc" but can emphasize betrayal more strongly.
  • Kẻ bội bạc. (The faithless one.)

Synonyms

• Ungrateful: Not feeling or showing gratitude.
• Unkind: Inconsiderate and harsh to others.
• Mean: Cruel or unkind in behavior.
• Shabby: Mean and unfair in treatment.

Related Idioms

• Ăn ở tệ bạc: To live or behave in a wretched, ungrateful, or unkind manner.

  • Nó ăn ở tệ bạc với người đã cứu mạng mình. (He behaved wretchedly towards the person who saved his life.)

• Tệ bạc với tình: To be unfaithful or unkind in love.

  • Anh ấy tệ bạc với tình, bỏ rơi vợ con. (He was unfaithful in love, abandoning his wife and children.)

adj

1. ungrateful