• Listen

  What it means

  Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. One should not find fault with something received as a gift.

  Vocabulary

  • darowany — gifted, given as a gift
  • koń — horse
  • ząb — tooth
  • zaglądać — to look into, to peer

  Grammar note

  'Darowanemu koniowi' — dative of the recipient. 'Się nie zagląda' — impersonal reflexive construction: 'one does not look'.

  Cultural context

  A horse's teeth reveal its age and health; checking them on a gift was considered ungrateful. Equivalent to the English 'don't look a gift horse in the mouth'.

  Intermediate

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