It's "A niech to szlag trafi" or "Niech to szlag". It comes in several versions. It is Polish and more polite version of "For fu**s sakes". It literally means "Let it get hit by a huge blow". Oddly enough many Poles spell the first word "SzlaK" wich is incorrect. I always correct them.
one is "Szlag by to trafił" ;) - Szlag comes from the German word Schlag which means blow,hit
Oddly enough many Poles spell the first word "SzlaK" wich is incorrect.
it is often spelled as 'szlak' because of the same pronounciation of the words - most people are unaware of the origins of the word and confuse it with 'szlak' (trail,route)
And it is spelt correctly. Pronouncing K in 'szlag' in the phrase "A niech to szlag trafi" would sound comical irrespectively of the fact that 'szlag' comes from the German language.
The general rule for the pronounciation of voiced consonants in Polish is that they become voiceless if followed by a voiceless consonant or if the are followed by nothing at the end of a word (a phenomenon called 'ubezdźwięcznienie'). There are, however, exceptions to this general rule and most notably in the małopolski and wielkopolski dialects.
It's not. Only in Nominative case szlag and szlak are pronouced the same way but they're SPELLED differently. sjp.pwn.pl/poradnia/haslo/szlak-czy-szlag;3858.html
Good grief! You're right. It seems I confounded the verb "spell" with the verb "pronounce". One reason is that English is not my first language after all, the other one is that I would have never thought someone could ever write "szlak mnie trafi" since 'szlag' and 'szlak' are so different in meaning!
@Ziemowit, the German corresponding expression would likely be "Schlag soll mich treffen!" :-))
Sometimes, a Polish idiom or saying may have almost a direct translation into another language, but not into user-friendly or common English parlance aka "Jaki pan, taki sam." = Wie's der Herr, so's Gescherr.
As I recall in English, at least in Britain aka England, there exists a phrase "As the captain, so the ship." :-)
In colloquial speech as concerns "Schlag"/"Der" Schlag, the article may in fact be omitted, I honestly forgot here. Certain usage is plain, flat wrong such as in fixed expressions.
Hi all, I have some Polish friends. We keep contact via email. I used google translation, but sometimes I can't understand. What does the text below mean?
Jesteśmy ciekawi co u Was słychać...[google translation: We are interested in what you hear ...] .. does this mean .. we're happy to hear from you?
Do spotkania ... [google translation: The meeting ] .. does this mean "see you"?
Jestesmy ciekawi co u Was slychac....We are interested/We would like to enquire.. what is going on in your life/your lives? Do spotkania...till we see you again
No brainer, but Google Translate's often just flat WRONG!! Machine translation as it is should be taken with a [huge] grain of salt:-)
I recently came across "Dziękuję z góry!" translated as "Thank from mountain!" vs. the idiomatically correct "Thank you in advance!" etc. ad hilarium lol
Thank you from a mountain - 'Dziekujemy z gory' (thanking you in advance). There are a number of these erroneous translations. People used 'thank you from a mountain' as a joke years ago.
Yes, exactly! And of course, what's so embarrassing about such bloopers is that NO POLE would actually say them, except possibly in jest:-)
Sort of like that old joke from the '60's, translating the German into English "Aus den Augen, aus dem Sinn" as "Invisible idiot" rather than "Out of sight out of mind", or from English into Russian, "The spirit was willing but the flesh was weak" as "The vodka was good, but the meat was bad." etc.....
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With the help of Google Translate and my Polish niece's limited English skills we have been trying to find a one- or two-word English translation for "gwiaździsty" as used in the following sentences from 1930s Polish newspapers:
Zlot gwiaździsty do Łodzi
W związku z dniem Legionów, w dniu 21 maja 1934 roku odbyło się na lotnisku łódzkiem w Lublinku szereg imprez sportowych, jak: zlot gwiaździsty samolotów, zjazd gwiaździsty samochodów i motocykli, bieg kolarski i bieg pieszy na przełaj oraz pościg samolotów i motocykli za szybowcem.
Główną imprezą był zlot gwiaździsty, zorganizowany przez Aeroklub Łódzki, w którym wzięło udział 5 samolotów oraz pociąg szybowcowy.
As far as I can understand it has nothing to do with stars but more to do with "all points of the compass" as in people or planes coming from all parts of Poland.
