只说不做 (zhǐ shuō bú zuò) — to be all talk and no action

Definition

A colloquial set phrase meaning 'all talk, no action' — used to criticize someone who promises or boasts but never follows through.

verb

to be all talk and no action

只说不做，。
Tā zhè ge rén zǒng shì zhǐ shuō bú zuò, shuō le hěn duō què shén me dōu bú zuò.
He is always all talk and no action; he says a lot but does nothing.
只说不做，。
Bié zhǐ shuō bú zuò le, ná chū shí jì xíng dòng lái zhèng míng zì jǐ.
Stop being all talk and no action; take concrete action to prove yourself.
，只说不做。
Zài tuán duì lǐ, zhǐ shuō bú zuò de rén wǎng wǎng dé bú dào dà jiā de xìn rèn.
In a team, people who are all talk and no action often don't get everyone's trust.

Characters in this word

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

只 shows air coming out of a mouth, for a word used in speech.

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 說; 说 is its simplified writing.

言兌說

Meaning part形符xíngfú

Sound part声符shēngfú

兌

兌duì說shuō

The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 說 pairs 言 (meaning) with 兌 (sound); the simplified 说 is not the form described here.

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

The picture in 不 originally showed a flower’s calyx; the “no” sense came later from a related character, not from this picture.

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.