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  What it means

  Literally “to buy a cat in a sack.” Means to buy a pig in a poke — to purchase or accept something without examining it first, only to discover it’s not what you expected.

  Vocabulary

  • kupić — to buy (perfective)
  • kot — cat
  • worek — sack / bag

  Grammar note

  'Kota' is the accusative of 'kot'. 'W worku' uses the locative of 'worek' after 'w' — the cat is inside the sack.

  Cultural context

  A medieval market fraud — sellers would substitute a cat for a piglet in a sack. The Polish version uses a cat where English uses a pig.

  Intermediate

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