DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

俗話說

简俗话说 · 繁俗話說

Mandarin · pinyin sú huà shuō

as the proverb says
as they say...

Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

俗: sú · social customs; vulgar, unrefined
話: huà · speech, talk, language; dialect
說: shuō · speak, say, talk; scold, upbraid
话: huà · speech, talk, language; dialect
说: shuō · speak, say, talk; scold, upbraid

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

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

2–4–1 · su2 hua4 shuo1

Compare attested words with these syllables ↗

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

5character 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.

俗話說 · find source passages ↗ · 俗话说 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗

Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

phrase

as the saying goes

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack