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  What it means

  “The pot was scolding the pan, yet it blackens itself.” The fuller version of the proverb: the one doing the criticising is guilty of the same thing. Hypocrisy exposed.

  English equivalent

  The pot calling the kettle black.

  Vocabulary

  • przyganiać — to scold, to reproach
  • kocioł — cauldron, pot
  • garnek — pot, pan
  • smolić — to blacken with soot, to tar
  • sam — himself, itself

  Grammar note

  'A sam smoli' — 'a' here is an adversative conjunction (yet/but). 'Sam' emphasises the subject doing the very thing it criticises.

  Intermediate

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