鱼与熊掌不可兼得
yú​yǔ​xióng​zhǎng​bù​kě​jiān​dé

you can't have both

  • created sense approved 鱼与熊掌不可兼得/魚與熊掌不可兼得 · yú​yǔ​xióng​zhǎng​bù​kě​jiān​dé · you can't have both — "Initial import from upstream dictionary"

    鱼与熊掌不可兼得 / 魚與熊掌不可兼得

    yú​yǔ​xióng​zhǎng​bù​kě​jiān​dé

    you can't have both

    (idiom) Lit. "one cannot have both the fish and the bear's paw"; used to mean that if you have to choose between two desirable things, you cannot have both at the same time.

    鱼与熊掌 (literal) → 鱼与熊掌/魚與熊掌 · yú​yǔ​xióng​zhǎng · you can't have both 不可 (literal) → 不可 · bù​kě · cannot 兼 (literal) → 兼 · jiān · to hold concurrently 得 (literal) → 得 · dé · to get

    Changed: simplified, traditional, gloss, definition, pinyin, variant pinyin, variants, separable parts, decomposition

    created sense