事与愿违 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• things turn out contrary to the way one wishes

Character by character

• 事shìaffair, matter, business; to serve; accident, inci
• 与yǔand; with; to; for; to give, to grant
• 愿yuàndesire, wish; honest, virtuous; ready, willing
• 违wéito violate, to disobey, to defy; to separate from

Idioms sharing a character

• 一事无成 yī shì wú chéng
• 不明事理 bù míng shì lǐ
• 事不过三 shì bù guò sān
• 事不关己 shì bù guān jǐ
• 事倍功半 shì bèi gōng bàn
• 事到临头 shì dào lín tóu
• 事半功倍 shì bàn gōng bèi
• 事危累卵 shì wēi lěi luǎn
• 事在人为 shì zài rén wéi
• 事后聪明 shì hòu cōng ming

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