trậm trầy trậm trật
Definition
- Adjective (Descriptive Phrase):
- Repeatedly failing or going wrong: Describes a process, action, or situation that fails, breaks down, or encounters problems again and again without reaching a successful conclusion. It implies persistent malfunction, difficulty, or a state of being stuck in a cycle of minor failures.
- Clumsy and troublesome: Can describe an action performed in an awkward, troublesome, or inefficient manner, leading to repeated frustrations.
Usage Examples
- Adjective:
- Công việc sửa xe máy cứ trậm trầy trậm trật mãi. (The motorbike repair job kept failing repeatedly.)
- Cái máy tính này dùng trậm trầy trậm trật, lúc được lúc không. (This computer works in a troublesome, unreliable way, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.)
Advanced Usage
- This phrase is highly colloquial and expressive, often used to convey frustration or annoyance at a persistent, nagging problem that refuses to be resolved smoothly. It emphasizes the repetitive nature of the failure.
Variants and Related Words
- Trầy trật (adj): Similar meaning, describing something troublesome, difficult, or not going smoothly. "Trậm trầy trậm trật" is an intensified, reduplicative form of this concept.
- Mọi việc diễn ra khá trầy trật. (Everything proceeded rather troublesomely.)
Synonyms
- Troublesome: Causing difficulty or annoyance.
- Problematic: Constituting or presenting a problem.
- Unreliable: Not able to be relied upon.
- Fitful: Active or occurring spasmodically or intermittently.
Related Idioms
- Được chăng hay chớ: (To do something) haphazardly, without care for the outcome. This shares the connotation of an unreliable or unsatisfactory process.
- Lúc được lúc không: On and off, intermittent. This describes the unreliable result implied by "trậm trầy trậm trật".