• Listen

  What it means

  Literally “when God wants to punish someone, He takes away their reason first.” Said of someone acting foolishly or making obviously bad decisions — implies their stupidity is itself a form of divine punishment.

  Vocabulary

  • ukarać — to punish
  • rozum — reason, common sense
  • odebrać — to take away

  Grammar note

  'Odbiera' is third person singular present of 'odbierać' — imperfective aspect, describing a recurring pattern.

  Cultural context

  Rooted in the Polish Catholic worldview. Often said with a resigned, darkly humorous tone about someone's inexplicable behaviour.

  Advanced

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!