• Listen

  What it means

  What flies out of your mouth like a bird, you can’t pull back with an ox — once words are spoken, they cannot be taken back.

  English equivalent

  A word spoken is past recalling.

  Vocabulary

  • ptak — bird
  • gęba — mouth (colloquial)
  • wylecieć — to fly out
  • wół — ox
  • nazad — back, backwards (archaic)
  • wciągnąć — to pull in, to draw back

  Grammar note

  'Ptakiem' and 'wołem' are instrumental case, expressing manner/means. The contrast in scale (bird vs ox) emphasises the impossibility.

  Intermediate

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