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  What it means

  Literally “where there are two Poles, there are three opinions.” A self-deprecating joke about Polish people’s tendency to disagree, debate, and hold strong individual views. Used fondly and critically alike.

  Vocabulary

  • Polak — a Pole, a Polish person
  • zdanie — opinion, sentence

  Grammar note

  'Dwóch Polaków' uses the genitive plural after the numeral 'dwóch'. 'Trzy zdania' uses the nominative plural after 'trzy'.

  Cultural context

  A classic piece of Polish self-irony. Variants exist with 'trzy partie' (three parties) or 'trzy poglądy' (three views) — all making the same point about Polish individualism and contrariness.

  Intermediate

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