How to say "lit. either the fish dies or the net gets torn (idiom)" in Chinese

When To Use It

"lit. either the fish dies or the net gets torn (idiom)" maps to 不是鱼死就是网破 (bú shì yú sǐ jiù shì wǎng pò), a neutral food phrase for restaurant situations.

Use it with servers, vendors, or food-stall staff when ordering, clarifying ingredients, or managing a meal politely.

Practice it first exactly as written, then swap in your own people, places, or objects so it becomes part of your active speaking repertoire.

Tone And Delivery

The register is neutral, which makes it flexible: safe in most daily situations without sounding stiff or overly intimate.

Because this is marked advanced, pay attention to nuance, tone, and whether a simpler phrase might be safer in fast conversation.

A good practice target is the example sentence 不是鱼死就是网破 (bú shì yú sǐ jiù shì wǎng pò). Once that feels natural, shorten your pause and try it at conversation speed.

Practice Ideas

This phrase becomes more useful when you learn it as part of a mini-sequence. After saying it, a natural next step could be 天上掉馅饼 (tiān shàng diào xiàn bǐng).

A second nearby phrase to review is 酒逢知己千杯少 (jiǔ féng zhī jǐ qiān bēi shǎo), which helps you stay in the same topic instead of translating from scratch again.

• Read the example “lit. either the fish dies or the net gets torn (idiom)” aloud, then replace one detail with your own information.
• Pair it with “A meat pie falls from the sky (idiom)” next so your conversation does not stop after a single line.
• Match the phrase to your tone of voice: soft for polite requests, flatter and quicker for routine daily use.
• If you hear a slightly different version in the wild, compare the tone and context before treating it as interchangeable.