mất công

Vietnamese

Etymology

mất (“to lose”) +‎ công (“work, labor”).

Pronunciation

(Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [mət̚˧˦ kəwŋ͡m˧˧]
(Huế) IPA^(key): [mək̚˦˧˥ kəwŋ͡m˧˧]
(Hồ Chí Minh City) IPA^(key): [mək̚˦˥ kəwŋ͡m˧˧]

Verb

mất công

(colloquial) to put one's effort (into something that turns out to useless or not needed)
Tối qua mất công cày bài cả đêm mà sáng ra đề dễ ẹt.
Man, last night I put all my effort into studying but (it turned out that) the test this morning was piss easy.

Adjective

mất công

(colloquial) useless
chuyện mất công ― useless things, useless affairs.

Derived terms

Derived terms

mất công mất sức

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