DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

人是鐵飯是鋼

简人是铁饭是钢 · 繁人是鐵飯是鋼

Mandarin · pinyin rén shì tiě fàn shì gāng

one can't function properly on an empty stomach (idiom)
an empty sack cannot stand upright

Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

人: rén · man; people; mankind; someone else
是: shì · indeed, yes, right; to be; demonstrative pronoun, this, that
鐵: Look up this written character
飯: fàn · cooked rice; food; meal
鋼: Look up this written character
铁: tiě · iron; strong, solid, firm
饭: fàn · cooked rice; food, meal
钢: gāng · steel; hard, strong, tough

Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

2–4–3–4–4–1 · ren2 shi4 tie3 fan4 shi4 gang1

Compare attested words with these syllables ↗

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

6character links

Explore word families ↗Compare pronunciations ↗Open character structure ↗

Counts describe dictionary records, not word frequency or semantic similarity. Source identities stay separate.

Read this spelling in Classical texts

Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

人是鐵飯是鋼 · find source passages ↗ · 人是铁饭是钢 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗