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  What it means

  A donkey will not sire a horse. You cannot expect quality or excellence from inferior origins — like produces like, and mediocrity does not produce greatness.

  English equivalent

  You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.

  Vocabulary

  • osioł — donkey, ass
  • koń — horse
  • spłodzić — to sire, to beget

  Grammar note

  'Konia' is the genitive of 'koń', required after the negated verb 'nie spłodzi'.

  Cultural context

  A blunt rural proverb about breeding and heredity, extended metaphorically to human potential and origins.

  Intermediate

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