Episode 64: Not Teach Father Children To Make!

Nie ucz ojca dzieci robić!

English Phonemes: “nyeh oo[cz] OY-tsah JYEH-chee ROH-beech”

Literal Translation: Not teach father children to make!

Elegant Translation: Don’t teach a father how to make children!

English Equivalent: You’re preaching to the choir.

The expression is pretty clear. It’s a saying for if someone is trying to teach/explain how to do something you obviously already know how to do.

You wouldn’t have the “birds and the bees” talk to a father of children, right?

Although the CLOSEST English phrase is “preaching to the choir”, the Polish phrase has a slightly different meaning in that there is a connotation of “mansplaining” (for lack of better term) that is conveyed. Someone is trying to teach you something they should KNOW you already know. They look like an idiot, and in your irritation, you can use this phrase as kind of a “check yourself before you wreck yourself” way. “Preaching to the choir” can also be used like this, yes, but it could also be used in cases where people don’t know how the other party feels about topic XYZ, which is a second meaning we don’t have in this Polish version.

Nie = no/not
Ucz = teach [imperative, vocative, instructive form of verb]
Ojca = father [singular, object form]
Dzieci = children [plural, object&subject form]
Robić = to make, to do [infinitive form of verb]

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