勤能补拙 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• hard work can make up for lack of natural talent

Character by character

• 勤qínindustrious, diligent, attentive
• 能néngcan, may; capable, full of energy
• 补bǔto fix, to mend, to patch, to restore
• 拙zhuōawkward, clumsy; dull, stupid

Idioms sharing a character

• 克勤克俭 kè qín kè jiǎn
• 勤俭节约 qín jiǎn jié yuē
• 勤则不匮 qín zé bù kuì
• 天道酬勤 tiān dào chóu qín
• 将勤补拙 jiāng qín bǔ zhuō
• 业精于勤 yè jīng yú qín
• 任贤使能 rèn xián shǐ néng
• 全知全能 quán zhī quán néng
• 力所能及 lì suǒ néng jí
• 各尽所能 gè jìn suǒ néng

Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.