• Listen

  What it means

  “Mild weather on St Andrew’s Day — oh, that’s a bad omen.” A variant of the same proverb using the older Polish form ‘Jędrzej’ for Andrew. Mild weather around 30 November predicts a hard winter.

  Vocabulary

  • miękko — softly, mildly (of weather)
  • Jędrzej — Andrew (older Polish form of the name)
  • nadzieja — hope, prospect
  • niedobry — bad, not good

  Grammar note

  'Na Jędrzeja' uses the genitive of 'Jędrzej'. This older form of the name was common in earlier centuries.

  Cultural context

  'Jędrzej' is the older Polish form of 'Andrzej'. Both names refer to St Andrew (30 November), patron of fortune-telling traditions.

  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!