Definition

1. Adjective/Adverb:
   • Laborious and inefficient: Describing a process or effort that is difficult, strenuous, and marked by repeated struggles or setbacks, often with slow or unsatisfactory progress.
   • With great difficulty and little success: Characterizing an action that requires much toil and hardship but yields minimal or delayed results.

Usage Examples

• Adjective/Adverb:
  • Công việc sửa nhà tiến triển một cách trầy trật. (The house renovation work progressed laboriously and inefficiently.)
  • Họ học tiếng Anh rất trầy trật. (They learned English with great difficulty and little success.)
  • Dự án đang diễn ra trầy trật vì thiếu kinh phí. (The project is proceeding laboriously and inefficiently due to a lack of funding.)

Advanced Usage

• The word often implies a sense of friction, repeated scraping against obstacles, and a lack of smoothness. It can describe physical tasks, intellectual efforts, or procedural undertakings.
• It can be used to modify a verb (functioning as an adverb) or to describe a noun (functioning as an adjective).

Variants and Related Words

• Trầy (v): to be grazed, scratched, or superficially injured. This root contributes the sense of friction and minor damage to trầy trật.
• Trật (adj/v): to be dislocated, off-track, or incorrect. This root contributes the sense of things not going smoothly or correctly.
• Trậm trầy trậm trật (adj/adv): A reduplicated, intensified form meaning with even greater struggle and hardship.

Synonyms

• Arduous: Involving strenuous effort.
• Laborious: Requiring considerable time and effort.
• Inefficiently: In a manner that does not achieve maximum productivity.
• With fits and starts: Progressing irregularly or with intermittent effort.

Related Idioms and Phrases

• Làm ăn trầy trật: To do business or work with great struggle and poor results.
  • Cửa hàng mới mở nên làm ăn còn trầy trật. (The newly opened shop is doing business with great struggle.)
• Tiến triển trầy trật: To advance or develop with difficulty and setbacks.
  • Cuộc đàm phán tiến triển trầy trật. (The negotiations advanced with difficulty and setbacks.)