一粒老鼠屎坏了一锅粥 in English yi1 li4 lao3 shu3 shi3 huai4 le5 yi1 guo1 zhou1 Meaning

Meanings

  • literally (word for word) a piece of rat feces spoiled the whole pot of congee (idiomatic expression)
  • metaphorically one bad apple can spoil the whole bunch

Simplified Characters

一 粒 老 鼠 屎 坏 了 一 锅 粥

Traditional Characters

一 粒 老 鼠 屎 壞 了 一 鍋 粥

Pinyin

yi1 li4 lao3 shu3 shi3 huai4 le5 yi1 guo1 zhou1

Literal

Literal explanation, with pronunciation and meaning of each character.

一yi1one 粒li4grain 老lao3prefix used before the surname of a person or a numeral indicating the order of birth of the children in a family or to indicate affection or familiarity 鼠shu3rat 屎shi3stool 坏huai4bad 了le5(completed action marker) 一yi1one 锅guo1pot 粥zhou1see 葷粥|荤粥[Xun1 yu4]