tay trên
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
Noun:
- A person who acts before others to gain an advantage: Refers to someone who seizes an opportunity or takes action ahead of others, often in a competitive context, to secure a benefit or favorable position.
- A player who plays before another (in a game): In games, the player whose turn comes before another player's.
Adjective:
- Having precedence or an upper hand: Describing a situation or person that is in a superior, leading, or advantageous position relative to others.
Usage Examples
- Noun:
- Trong vụ mua bán đó, hắn là tay trên, giành hết phần lợi. (In that deal, he was the one who acted first, taking all the profit.)
- Đến lượt tay trên được đánh trước. (It's the turn of the player who goes first.)
- Adjective:
- Công ty đó đang ở thế tay trên trong cuộc đàm phán. (That company is in a superior position in the negotiation.)
Advanced Usage
- The term often implies a strategic or cunning move to get ahead, not merely being first in a neutral sequence. It can carry a connotation of gaining an unfair advantage or outmaneuvering someone.
- "phỗng tay trên": A common phrase meaning to deftly seize an opportunity or advantage from right under someone else's nose; to preempt someone.
- Nó phỗng tay trên lấy mất hợp đồng. (He deftly snatched the contract from under our noses.)
Variants and Related Words
- Đi trước (v): to go first, to precede.
- Chiếm ưu thế (v): to gain the upper hand.
- Lợi thế (n): advantage.
Synonyms
- Front-runner: A person who leads in a competition or contest.
- Preemptor: One who acts before others to prevent their action.
- Front hand (figurative): Having a positional advantage.
Related Idioms
- Phỗng tay trên: As described in Advanced Usage, this is the primary idiom directly incorporating the term.
- Cướp cơ hội: To steal an opportunity (a related concept but not using the term "tay trên").
- by stealing a march on somebodytealing a march on somebody