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  What it means

  Literally “to be missing the fifth stave.” Means to have a screw loose — to be a bit crazy, not quite right in the head. Used humorously about someone acting strangely or irrationally.

  Vocabulary

  • brakować — to be missing / to lack
  • piąta — fifth
  • klepka — stave (a plank of a barrel)

  Grammar note

  'Brakować' takes the genitive — 'piątej klepki' is genitive, meaning the fifth stave is what's missing.

  Cultural context

  The image is of a barrel missing one of its wooden staves — it can't hold anything together. A barrel needs all its staves to function.

  Intermediate

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