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祸不单行 (huò bù dān xíng) — misfortunes never come singly; when it rains, it pours

Definition

Chengyu meaning 'misfortunes never come alone' — one bad event tends to bring another. Often paired with the proverb 福无双至 to contrast bad and good luck.

idiom
misfortunes never come singlywhen it rainsit pours

Examples

  • ，，祸不单行。
    Tā gāng diū le gōng zuò, yòu shēng bìng zhù yuàn, zhēn shì huò bù dān xíng.
    He just lost his job and then got sick and hospitalized — truly, misfortunes never come singly.
  • “，祸不单行”，。
    Sú huà shuō "fú wú shuāng zhì, huò bù dān xíng", nǐ yào zuò hǎo xīn lǐ zhǔn bèi.
    As the saying goes, 'blessings never come in pairs, misfortunes never come singly' — you should be mentally prepared.
  • 祸不单行，，。
    Zuì jìn zhēn shì huò bù dān xíng, xiān shì bèi tōu le qián bāo, jiē zhe yòu shuāi shāng le tuǐ.
    Recently it's really been one thing after another — first my wallet was stolen, then I broke my leg.

Origin

Characters in this word

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 禍; 祸 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
示示shìsacrifice
Sound part声符shēngfú
咼
咼wāi禍huò
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The simplified 祸 is an abbreviation of traditional 禍, which pairs 示 (sacrifice) with 咼 to show pronunciation.

Open 祸 →

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.

Open 不 →

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 單; 单 is its simplified writing.

The form 單 originally pictured a Y-shaped wooden stick with two stones on top.

Open 单 →

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

  • 彳彳chì
  • 亍亍chù

The shape of 行 originally showed a street intersection, even on both sides. Later it became uneven, with 彳 on the left and 亍 on the right.

Open 行 →
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Idioms & Set Phrases

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