Meaning of "不是一家人不进一家门"

[Moving_away]

Do any of you know the meaning of this saying?

The person I heard this saying from told me it means : "to have many common grounds" but when searching the net I found the translation : "If a bride were not meant to marry into a family, fate would not bring her in the door." (wiktionary)

There seems to be a rather big difference there. Since my chinese is too limited to consult a chinese proverb dictionary, I was wondering whether anybody here could shine a light on this. What is the meanig and does it have any connotations, and if so, positive or negative.

Thanks in advance.

[semantic nuance]

Actually the explanation is not different from the one of wikitionary. The definition of wikitionary is the original meaning and the explanation from your friend is its implication. The phrase can be used positively and negatively. It is similar to 'birds of a feather flock together'.

Quoted from here:

注釋 (諺語)嫁出去的女子，性格作風往往和夫家人相像。亦用以形容緣分天註定。如：「俗

語說的好：『不是一家人，不進一家門。』你既然娶了她，就得好好照顧她！」

Hope it helps!