How You Say?

Episode 15: Who Wants Dog To Hit, Stick Will Find!


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Kto chce psa uderzyć, kija znajdzie.

English Phonemes: “ktoh htseh psah oo-DEH-[ż]ihch, KEE-yah ZNAHY-jeh”

Literal translation: Who wants dog to hit, stick will find.
More elegant translation: One who wants to hit a dog, will find a stick.
Closest English analog saying: Where there’s a will, there’s a way. But it's a bit darker than that because it also has the tone of "whoever wants to justify doing something immoral will find a reason to justify it" laced in the saying. It's a popular old saying, you'll get a lot of Polish street cred for knowing this one!

Kto = who, whoever (similar word root to “ktoś” which means “someone”)
Chce = he/she/it wants [3rd person singular, present tense]
Psa = a dog [Object form. Subject form of dog is “pies”, pronounced “pyes”.]
Uderzyć = to hit (once). [infinitive form of the verb]
Kija = a stick [Object form. Subject form of stick is “kij”, pronounced “key”.]
Znajdzie = he/she/it will find [3rd person singular, future tense]

Remember the [ch] letter combo sounds just like "h" to English speakers. It's also a homonym to the letter "h" in the Polish alphabet!
Remember the [rz] phoneme is a homonym to the [ż] letter in the alphabet. Mind the duck face when pronouncing it!
Remember also the [dzi] letter combo sounds just like “j” in English!

Shoutout to listener Tova on Twitter! Those videos are coming!

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How You Say?By Julia Tutko-Balena

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