How do you literally translate Home Sweet Home in Polish

I,would like to know how,to,literally translate Home Sweet Home in Polish, we'd like to make a sign to hang above our fireplace mantle. Thank you for the help.

the literal translation would be 'Dom Słodki Dom' but it doesn't sound all that well in Polish

Yeah I agree. There is wszędzie dobrze ale w domu najlepiej roughly 'everywhere's nice but home is best', or even more loosely 'there's no place like home')

There's also ciasny ale własny, roughly 'small but (my/our) own' or more loosely "be it ever so humble"

But I don't think you can link those two expressions like you can in english.

The problem is that in Polish they do not have an equivalent word for 'home' as we understand it. They have a 'house', 'flat', but nothing that indicates 'home'. 'Dom rodzinny' (family home) but this is not exactly the same and that is why any translations have to be 'near'.

They have dom (house, home) but it doesn't have the same emotional connotations. Dom is good because you're away from strange unrelated people. Most of the warm emotional connotations of 'home' are transferred to 'rodzina'. 'Family' (at least for Americans) doesn't have the same emotional strength as 'rodzina'.

There is no expression with such use as "home sweet home".

"Wszędzie dobrze, ale w domu najlepiej" (Everywhere it's good, but at home it's best) will be a rough equivalent. Sometimes I also hear "nie ma to jak w domu" (There is no place like home), but I am not sure if it's not just a copy from a foreign language. "Wszędzie dobrze, ale w domu najlepiej" is definitely Polish.

Thank you al so much for your help, we are going with the more traditional Polish one, awesome idea!

Actually, there is a phrase "ognisko domowe" that refers to the English word "home" but Poles don't use it in daily conversation.

Yes, it's more a scientific or specialistic term.

Actually, I have never heard anyone say...I'm going to ognisko domowe', when they meant 'I'm going home.' But I agree that if you are having a sign or anything else in the house then 'Ognisko domowe' is a good idea.

"home sweet home" in Polish: "dom kochany dom" or 'nie ma to jak w domu'
home = 'dom' in Polish (not 'rodzina' , not 'ognisko domowe')
family = rodzina in Polish

Yes, of course, but it seems that meaning of "home" in English is somehow wider than of "dom" in Polish. We, basically, don't have difference between "house" and "home" (although "dom" has, on the other hand, a narrower meaning than "house", it's very rarely used for just any building, "dom" will almost always be a house in which people live), we have a single word: "dom". That's why not all the connotations of the English word "home" can be transferred to the Polish word "dom".

Although the differences are so tiny that it won't probably matter at all.

It does and this equivalent is 'dom'. The noun 'dom' has several meanings in Polish, but the two principal ones correspond exactly to the English (1) 'house' and (2) 'home'. When I want to say that I was away from home yesterday, I will say 'Nie było mnie wczoraj w domu' even if I live in a flat.

A rough equivalent for the English 'home sweet home' may be the Polish phrase 'domowe pielesza', but that definitely isn't appropriate as a sign to hang above the fireplace mantle. A nice Polish expression describing reverence to your guests is "Gość w dom, Bóg w dom".

"Gość w domU, Bóg w domU".
it should be ....w domU,

No, it shouldn't. This expression has retained its archaic form and is used as such in our days. The phrase implies movement here (gość przybywa w dom - accusative) and not place (gość jest w domu - locative) as in your example.

No. Not "Guest at home, God at home", but "Guest to the home, God to the home".

Compare it with German "in" + accusative or dative.

Now we don't say "w dom", we say "do domu", but it's a fixed expression.

Yeah, there's no way to conveniently do that with prepositions in English (since it doesn't have the same kind of nominal case system that Polish does) "Guest to the home" sounds ... werid, "Guest into the home" maybe even weirder. Maybe "When a guest arrives, God arrives" or "A guest at the door, God at the door" would be more idiomatic translations. Not as pithy as the Polish but closer in meaning.

Or "nie ma jak u mamy!" - referring to the food, warmth, concern and love only a mother can exude.


It's sound better thus: A guest in the house (or home) is God in the house (or home)!

Do it's?

A guest in the home, God in the home is okay but lacks..... something (and definitely implies location rather than reception).

There are other versions like Gość w dom, masło do lodówki (A guest in the home, butter to the fridge) or Gość w dom cukier do szafy (A guest in the home, sugar to the cupboard) or even Gość w dom, żona w ciąży (A guest in the home, the wife (is) pregnant).

Or ...... Wszystko jest do d*py tylko szczoteczka jest do zębów!

Yeah, and here you can see how Polish family jumps into competences of the English home.

That's a good one. Never heard it before! It has reminded me of the commie times "transformation" of another well-known old saying: Czym chata bogata, tym rada into a more up-to-date one: Tym chata bogata, co ukradnie tata!