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  What it means

  Literally “to decline through all cases,” this idiom plays on Polish grammatical terminology — ‘przypadki’ are grammatical cases. Figuratively, it means to discuss someone or something from every angle, to put it through the wringer, or to talk about it incessantly and in every possible context. It is often used when someone’s name or a topic is being repeated and analysed to exhaustion. “Jego nazwisko odmieniano przez wszystkie przypadki w mediach” means his name was all over the media.

  Vocabulary

  • odmieniać — to decline, to inflect (imperfective); also: to change, transform
  • przypadki — cases (grammatical); also: accidents, incidents (from 'przypadek')
  • przez — through, across (preposition governing accusative)
  • wszystkie — all (accusative plural)

  Grammar note

  The phrase is built on the grammatical term 'odmieniać przez przypadki' — to conjugate/decline through the cases. In figurative use it appears in imperfective aspect to describe ongoing media or social attention. The preposition 'przez' governs the accusative: 'przez wszystkie przypadki.' The double meaning of 'przypadek' (grammatical case / coincidence) makes this phrase especially expressive.

  Cultural context

  This expression is clever because it exploits the ambiguity of 'przypadek,' which means both 'grammatical case' and 'coincidence/incident.' It is widely used in journalism and commentary when someone becomes the subject of intense or repetitive public discussion. Register: neutral to journalistic. English equivalents: 'to put someone through the wringer,' 'to drag someone's name through the press,' 'to dissect from every angle.'

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