Chinese word dictionary

得鱼忘筌

dé yú wàng quán · lit. catch fish then forget the trap (idiom, from Zhuangzi 莊子|庄子[Zhuang1 zi3]); fig. to take help for granted

Practice word

Word information

Simplified得鱼忘筌

Traditional得魚忘筌

Pinyindé yú wàng quán

Part of speechDictionary

HSK 3.0Not listed

HSK 2.0Not listed

Character breakdown

Study each Hanzi separately, then return to the complete word so pronunciation, meaning, and movement stay connected.

得dé

to obtain, to get, to acquire; suitable, proper; ready

鱼yú

fish

忘wàng

to forget, to miss, to neglect, to overlook

筌quán

bamboo fish trap

How to learn 得鱼忘筌

Listen once without reading, repeat the pinyin with its tones, then write every character in sequence. Finally, recall the complete meaning instead of memorizing each character as an isolated translation.

When the word appears in a sentence, check whether its part of speech and meaning match the definition shown here. Chinese words can change nuance with context.

Related vocabulary

Words with the same characters

Compare how a familiar Hanzi changes meaning inside another word.

觉得juéde

to think that ...; to feel that ...; to feel (uncomfortable etc)

得de

structural particle: used after a verb (or adjective as main verb), linking it to following phrase indicating effect, degree, possibility etc

记得jìde

to remember

忘wàng

to forget; to overlook; to neglect

鱼yú

fish (CL:條|条[tiao2],尾[wei3]); used in the names of various aquatic animals that are not fish (including abalone 鮑魚|鲍鱼[bao4 yu2], alligators and crocodiles 鱷魚|鳄鱼[e4 yu2] and octopi 章魚|章鱼[zhang1 yu2]); surname Yu

得到dédào

to get; to obtain; to receive