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  What it means

  Literally “like a whip crack.” Means instantly, in a flash — something happened with the sudden speed and sharpness of a cracking whip.

  Vocabulary

  • bat — whip
  • strzelić — to shoot / to crack (perfective)

  Grammar note

  'Z bata' uses the genitive of 'bat' after 'z'. 'Strzelił' is the masculine past tense perfective — the whip cracked.

  Cultural context

  The crack of a whip was a familiar sound in rural Poland. The phrase captures sudden, sharp speed.

  Intermediate

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