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說話算話

简说话算话 · 繁說話算話

Mandarin · pinyin shuō huà suàn huà

to do as promised
to be as good as one's word
to honor one's word
to mean what one says

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Characters in this entry

說: shuō · speak, say, talk; scold, upbraid
話: huà · speech, talk, language; dialect
算: suàn · count, calculate, figure; plan
说: shuō · speak, say, talk; scold, upbraid
话: huà · speech, talk, language; dialect

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

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Mandarin tones

1–4–4–4 · shuo1 hua4 suan4 hua4

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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.

說話算話 · find source passages ↗ · 说话算话 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

syut3 waa6 syun3 waa6

Cantonese word readings for 說話算話. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

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

phrase

(idiomatic) to be as good as one's word; to be true to one's word; to keep one's word

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

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