It’s no secret that a language is not only vocabulary, conjugations (which are very important, as a seemingly small mistake in a verb form may change the meaning of an utterance, so if you re not sure how to conjugate a Polish verb, check it out here), or declensions. Idioms and proverbs are part of a language as well. The more of them we are familiar with, the better our command of the language is. Obviously, that is also the case of the Polish language.
Like any other language, Polish has its idioms, which sound ridiculous or weird when translated literally, but as soon as you learn what they really mean, they are very useful in everyday conversations.
WILCZY APETYT, OR HOW AND WHEN TO USE POLISH IDIOMS
Animal idioms make up a large part of idiomatic vocabulary of the Polish language, which proves the creativity of this language.
When Polish people want to say that someone is in very good health, they say: jest zdrów jak ryba(he’s as fit as a fiddle; literally: as healthy as a fish) or ma końskie zdrowie (he has the constitution of a horse).
The horse appears as well when we want to communicate that we are extremely hungry. In such a case we say that someone mógłby zjeść konia z kopytami. i.e. eat a lot (they’re so hungry they could eat a horse, literally: a horse with hooves, so the whole horse). Such a person ia also głodny jak wilk (as hungry as a bear; literally: as a wolf). And if we know someone who has a hearty appetite, we can say that he or she has wilczy apetyt (a ravenous, wolfish appetite).
IDIOMATIC AND DYPLOMATIC EXPRESSIONS TO DESCRIBE PEOPLE’S WEAKNESSES
Animals help us to describe our behaviour and personal qualities, too. If someone suddenly starts to behave oddly and unreasonably, fool around or even become aggressive, we say that he or she dostał małpiego rozumu (literally: got monkey brains).
Someone not too clever has ptasi móżdżek (has a bird brain).
A tight-fisted person ma węża w kieszeni (literally: has a snake in his or her pocket)
Someone shrewd and cunning may be called szczwany lis (sly/cunning as a fox; literally: a cunning fox)
And if you see someone crying over someone else’s misfortunes and you know that their tears are not sincere, you say that he or she płacze krokodylimi łzami (weeps crocodile tears).
Someone who is told that słoń nadepnął mu/jej na ucho (an elephant stepped on his/her ear) does not need to be taken to hospital, they are absolutely fine except for the fact that they are tone-deaf.
And when a message we get is illegible because of someone’s awful handwriting, we can honestly say that the author bazgrze jak kura pazurem (scribbles like a chicken with a claw).
So, if learning Polish is your konik (hobbyhorse), you should definitely enrol on ne of our courses (more on the courses Po Polsku offers on our website), and you will learn lots of interesting idioms, proverbs, as well as everyday words :)
