千丈の堤も蟻の一穴から (Senjō no tsutsumi mo ari no ikketsu kara)

Meaning: A small neglected flaw can bring down something great.

Literally: Even a thousand-fathom dyke collapses from a single ant hole

Example: “小さなミスでも放っておくと大事故になる。千丈の堤も蟻の一穴からだ。” — Even small mistakes, left alone, cause big accidents: for want of a nail the shoe was lost.

Equivalents in English, French, German, Italian, and Chinese

English: For want of a nail the shoe is lost; for want of a shoe the horse is lost; for want of a horse the rider is lost.
French: Faute d'un point, Martin perdit son âne (literally: For want of a dot, Martin lost his donkey)
German: Kleine Ursachen, große Wirkungen (literally: Small causes, great effects)
Italian: Per un chiodo si perde un ferro, e per un ferro un cavallo (literally: For a nail a shoe is lost, and for a shoe a horse)
Chinese: 千里之堤，溃于蚁穴 (Qiān lǐ zhī dī, kuì yú yǐ xué) (literally: A thousand-mile dyke collapses through an ant hole)

Origin: The Japanese form of the Han Feizi's dyke breached through the holes of ants; a jō is about three meters.

Tricky phrases to practice out loud, from languages around the world.

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