• Listen

  What it means

  Literally “better a sparrow in the hand than a pigeon on the roof.” The Polish equivalent of “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” Value what you have over chasing uncertain rewards.

  Vocabulary

  • wróbel — sparrow
  • garść — handful / palm of the hand
  • gołąb — pigeon / dove
  • dach — roof

  Grammar note

  'W garści' is the locative of 'garść' after 'w'. 'Na dachu' is also locative (location). 'Lepszy' is the comparative of 'dobry' (good).

  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!