三天打鱼，两天晒网 in English san1 tian1 da3 yu2 , liang3 tian1 shai4 wang3 Meaning

Meanings

  • literally (word for word) to fish for three days and sun-dry the nets for two days (proverb)
  • metaphorically not to persevere in doing sth
  • to do sth by fits and starts

Simplified Characters

三 天 打 鱼 ， 两 天 晒 网

Traditional Characters

三 天 打 魚 ， 兩 天 曬 網

Pinyin

san1 tian1 da3 yu2 , liang3 tian1 shai4 wang3

Literal

Literal explanation, with pronunciation and meaning of each character.

三san1surname San 天tian1day 打da3dozen (loanword) 鱼yu2surname Yu ， 两liang3two 天tian1day 晒shai4variant of 曬|晒[shai4] 网wang3net