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  What it means

  “Mice dance when they don’t sense the cat.” A variant of the same idea: people take advantage and enjoy themselves freely when the authority figure is away.

  English equivalent

  When the cat's away, the mice will play.

  Vocabulary

  • mysz — mouse
  • tańcować — to dance (archaic/regional variant of tańczyć)
  • czuć — to sense, to smell, to feel

  Grammar note

  'Tańcują' is an archaic or regional third-person plural form of 'tańczyć'. 'Kota' is genitive after negation.

  Cultural context

  This is a variant of 'Myszy dokazują, gdy kota nie czują', differing only in the verb. Both versions circulate in Polish folk tradition.

  Beginner

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