• Listen

  What it means

  Literally “fortune turns like a wheel.” Means that luck is cyclical — what goes up must come down, and vice versa. Today’s winner may be tomorrow’s loser. Equivalent to “the wheel of fortune turns.”

  Vocabulary

  • fortuna — fortune, luck
  • koło — wheel, circle
  • toczyć się — to roll, to turn

  Grammar note

  'Kołem' is the instrumental singular of 'koło', used here to describe the manner of movement — turning *like a wheel* / *as a wheel*.

  Cultural context

  The image of Fortuna's wheel is ancient and appears across European cultures. In Polish it remains a living idiom, not just a literary reference.

  Intermediate

Noticed a typo, a wrong translation, or anything that doesn't look right? We'd love to fix it — just let us know via the contact page. Thank you!