前車之鑒 qián chē zhī jiàn

lesson from others' past mistakes

Word data

HSK Not in HSK
Frequency Unknown

Definitions

  1. 1. to learn a lesson from the mistakes of one's predecessor (idiom)

Characters

Character Meaning
前 qián HSK 1
front; before; forward
車 chē
vehicle; car; machine
之 zhī HSK 4
(possessive particle, literary equivalent of 的de); it
鑒 jiàn
to inspect; to view; to reflect