• Listen

  What it means

  When ice doesn’t form on St. Catherine’s Day (November 25), prepare your sleigh. A late freeze means a hard winter is still coming.

  Vocabulary

  • Katarzyna — Catherine (St. Catherine's Day, November 25)
  • lód — ice
  • stanąć — to form, to set (of ice); to stand
  • gotować — to prepare; to cook
  • sanie — sleigh, sled (plural)

  Grammar note

  'Nie stanie' is the negated perfective future of 'stanąć'. 'Gotuj' is the imperative of 'gotować'. 'Sanie' is a plural-only noun.

  Cultural context

  St. Catherine's Day (November 25) is a traditional marker in the Polish folk calendar. No ice yet means a cold winter is still on its way.

  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!