• Listen

  What it means

  “In spring, a bucketful of rain makes a spoonful of mud; in autumn, a spoonful of rain makes a bucketful of mud.” Spring soil drains well and dries quickly, while autumn soil is already saturated and turns to deep mud with even a little rain.

  Vocabulary

  • ceber — bucket, tub
  • deszczu — of rain (genitive)
  • łyżka — spoon, spoonful
  • błota — of mud (genitive)
  • jesień — autumn
  • wiosna — spring

  Grammar note

  'Ceber deszczu' and 'łyżka błota' use the genitive of measure. 'Na wiosnę' and 'na jesieni' are fixed temporal expressions.

  Cultural context

  A practical observation from Polish rural life about the very different drainage conditions of spring versus autumn fields.

  Intermediate

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