trầy trật
Definition
- 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.)