Learn some common Polish idioms
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Intro |
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| Michael: What are some common polish idioms? |
| Igor: And how are they used? |
| Michael: At PolishPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Consider the following situation. Sasha Lee and Aneta Adamska see two classmates arguing. |
| "Maybe we should meddle?" |
| Sasza Lee: Może powinnyśmy się wtrącić? |
| Dialogue |
| Sasza Lee: Może powinnyśmy się wtrącić? |
| Aneta Adamska: Nie mój cyrk, nie moje małpy. |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Sasza Lee: Może powinnyśmy się wtrącić? |
| Michael: "Should we meddle?" |
| Aneta Adamska: Nie mój cyrk, nie moje małpy. |
| Michael: "It's not my problem." |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: The topic of today's lessons are Polish idioms or |
| Igor: idiomy. |
| Michael: Idioms are groups of words that represent a meaning that is not evident from looking at the words themselves. A good example for this is the English "a piece of cake," meaning that something is very easy. We usually use idioms to emphasize the message we try to deliver to the listener. |
| [Recall 1] |
| Michael: To make it more understandable, let's take a closer look at the dialogue. After Sasha asked, "Should we meddle?," Aneta Adamska says "It's not my problem." |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Igor: Nie mój cyrk, nie moje małpy. |
| Michael: Actually, the literal translation of this sentence is "Not my circus, not my monkeys." It's a pretty clear image, isn't it? Imagine monkeys, that escaped from a circus, are making trouble. The circus owner needs to take care of it, but you don't have to worry about it—it's not your circus. You would use this idiom to say that something is unrelated to you, it's not your problem, and the other person needs to take care of it by themselves. |
| While this idiom's meaning is very close to just saying "I don't care.," it doesn't sound as bad, and it's even often used as a motivational quote, in a sense of "Let it go." You can also adjust it to tell someone "Don't worry about it," or |
| Igor: Nie twój cyrk, nie twoje małpy. |
| Michael: or, alternatively, by removing negation, to say "it's my problem, I need to take care of it." |
| Igor: Mój cyrk, moje małpy. |
| [Summary] |
| Michael: In today's lesson, you learned that idioms are non-literal phrases that are used to emphasize your statement. |
| Expansion/Contrast |
| Michael: Learning and using idioms will help you to use Polish more freely, and to express your feelings in a more accurate way. |
| To help you with idioms, we created a list of seven very common idioms, with a short description of what they mean. The first is |
| Igor: jak grochem o ścianę, |
| Michael: literally meaning "like throwing the peas at the wall." The meaning of this idiom is very similar to the English "to fall on deaf ears." This idiom would be used in a situation where you tried to explain something or convince someone, but they won't listen. The image is pretty straightforward: if you throw peas at a wall, they'll just bounce off. The next idiom is |
| Igor: obiecywać gruszki na wierzbie, |
| Michael: literally meaning "to promise the pears on the willow-tree." It's usually used similarly to the English "to promise castles in the sky," and means to promise something unreal. Next we have: |
| Igor: upiec dwie pieczenie na jednym ogniu, |
| Michael: literally, "bake two roasts on one fire." Does this remind you of any English idiom? It means the same thing as "to kill two birds with one stone," or to get two things done at the same time. Another idiom is |
| Igor: Co ma piernik do wiatraka? |
| Michael: literally, "What does gingerbread have to do with a windmill?" which means "What does one thing have to do with the other?." You might use this one if you don't see how, what the other person said, is related to the current topic. Polish has many idioms linked to ancient mythology, some of which will be very similar to their English counterparts. One such example is |
| Igor: pięta achillesowa, |
| Michael: meaning "Achilles' heel," or someone's weakness. The origin of this idiom stems from Greek mythology, where the heel was the only spot on The hero Achilles' body that could receive damage. Some other idioms come from the Bible, such as |
| Igor: rzucać perły między świnie |
| Michael: meaning "to cast pearls before swine." This idiom appears in many other languages such as German, and is directly taken from the Gospel of Matthew. There is of course a big group of idioms stemming from Polish and European legends and history, and even many Polish people don't know exactly where they come from. A good example is the idiom |
| Igor: czarna polewka, |
| Michael: meaning literally "a black soup," which actually means to turn someone down, and comes from the tradition of serving traditional Polish soup made of duck blood to a courting man as a sign of rejection. The tradition is long gone, but the idiom stayed in the language. Looking into the origin of Polish idioms can be a history lesson by itself. |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Igor: Do usłyszenia! |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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