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常在河边走，哪有不湿鞋

cháng zài hé biān zǒu , nǎ yǒu bù shī xiédictionary entry
DEFINITION CC-CEDICT
a person who regularly walks by the river cannot avoid getting their shoes wet (proverb) / (fig.) it comes with the territory (e.g. a person with the power to grant favors will inevitably succumb to temptation and take a bribe)
Sources & editorial notes

Reference definitions: CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG, CC BY-SA 4.0. Source release 2026-10-27T01:55:52Z. Imported 2026-10-27. Definition wording and meaning order are retained. Recognized pronunciation references are displayed with tone marks; the original source record is available below.

Source record: cd-dc1415751401f30f. Source SHA-256: bbc4b27f26bee1a262f4d7939667a040c7857c7fc0200a2fa7a86d3352a09eae.

Original source entry:

常在河邊走，哪有不濕鞋 常在河边走，哪有不湿鞋 [chang2 zai4 he2 bian1 zou3 , na3 you3 bu4 shi1 xie2] /a person who regularly walks by the river cannot avoid getting their shoes wet (proverb)/(fig.) it comes with the territory (e.g. a person with the power to grant favors will inevitably succumb to temptation and take a bribe)/

Reference definitions and teaching material have separate provenance.

Reference information

The definitions above are from CC-CEDICT. Examples and usage notes are available on selected entries.

Character information

View the individual characters. Their meanings do not necessarily explain the meaning of the whole word.

Other forms in these source records: 常在河邊走，哪有不濕鞋

  • 常
    cháng

    always / ever / often / frequently / common / general / constant

    Cháng

    surname Chang

  • 在
    zài

    to exist / to be alive / (of sb or sth) to be (located) at / (used before a verb to indicate an action in progress)

  • 河
    hé

    river (CL:條|条[tiáo],道[dào]) / (bound form) the Yellow River / (bound form) the Milky Way / (bound form) (on restaurant menus) rice noodles 河粉[hé fěn]

  • 边
    biān

    side / edge / margin / border / boundary / CL:個|个[gè] / simultaneously

    bian

    suffix of a noun of locality

  • 走
    zǒu

    to walk / to go / to run / to move (of vehicle) / to visit / to leave / to go away / to die (euph.) / from / through / away (in compound verbs, such as 撤走[chè zǒu]) / to change (shape, form, meaning)

  • 哪
    nǎ

    how / which

    na

    (emphatic sentence-final particle, used instead of 啊[a] after a word ending in "n")

    né

    used in 哪吒[Né zhā] / Taiwan pr. [nuó]

    něi

    which? (interrogative, followed by classifier or numeral-classifier)

  • 有
    yǒu

    to have / there is / (bound form) having / with / -ful / -ed / -al (as in 有意[yǒu yì] intentional)

  • 不
    bù

    no / not so / (bound form) not / un-

  • 湿
    shī

    moist / wet

  • 鞋

Reference definitions from CC-CEDICT.