CANTONESE ↔ ENGLISH · CC-CANTO

爛船都有三斤釘

简烂船都有三斤钉 · 繁爛船都有三斤釘

Cantonese · source Jyutpinglaan6 syun4 dou1 jau5 saam1 gan1 deng1

there must be something useful in anything broken or disused (slang)

About these definitions

Source definition segments, in their original order. Characters a definition cites are shown without their Mandarin pinyin; classifier lists that CC-Canto copied from CC-CEDICT are marked Mandarin. The community dictionary is not independently verified by zimai.

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Reading & tones

laan66 · low levelsyun44 · low fallingdou11 · high leveljau55 · low risingsaam11 · high levelgan11 · high leveldeng11 · high level

Schematic citation-tone diagrams from the source numbers. These are not recordings or predictions of connected speech.

Reading difference from Unihan

釘 has the reading deng1 here; Unihan’s citation reading is ding1. Different syllable across these source readings. CC-Canto also lists 釘 deng1 as its own entry.

Computed by zimai: each syllable of the CC-Canto word reading is compared with Unihan 17.0.0 kCantonese for its character. The comparison does not say why a reading differs (a changed tone, 變音, a reading tied to one meaning, or a source variant).

Same syllable, six tones

laanlaan1—laan2—laan3—兰laan4orchid 懒laan5lazy 烂laan6soft

syun酸syun1sour 选syun2to choose 算syun3to regard as 旋syun4to revolve 吮syun5to suck 篆syun6seal

dou都dou1all 倒dou2to pour 到dou3todou4—dou5—道dou6direction

jau优jau1excellent 糗jau2dry rations 幼jau3young 油jau4oil 有jau5to have 右jau6right

saam三saam1threesaam2—saam3—saam4—saam5—saam6—

gan根gan1root 紧gan2tight 艮gan3bluntgan4—gan5—近gan6near

Characters whose customary Unihan reading (kCantonese) is this syllable in each tone, chosen as in the tone atlas (2013 standard level, then the number of CC-CEDICT words they form), with CC-Canto 2017's meaning for that reading; a dash means no catalogue character has that reading. Checked syllables (-p, -t, -k) normally carry tones 1, 3 and 6. Character readings, not word readings; no frequency implied.

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Written characters

爛船都有三斤釘烂钉

Both source spellings are represented. Written membership is not an etymological or semantic claim.

Cantonese characters and the Mandarin bridge ↗

Mandarin comparison · separate source entries

CC-Canto includes this pinyin reference: lan4 chuan2 dou1 you3 san1 jin1 ding1. It does not establish a Mandarin word with the same meaning.

Look up this spelling in the Mandarin dictionary ↗

Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

laan6 syun4 dou1 jau5 saam1 gan1 deng1

Cantonese word readings for 爛船都有三斤釘. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

CanCLID contributors · CC BY 4.0 · source & license · Data pack

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

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

proverb

(Cantonese) No matter how bad something is, there is still some value in it.

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

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