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  What it means

  Literally: “The stingy/cunning person loses twice.” The proverb warns that someone who tries to save money by being excessively cheap or by cutting corners ends up worse off than if they had paid fairly from the start. The first loss is from the inferior cheap option; the second is having to pay again to fix the problem. It’s a caution against false economy and penny-pinching.

  English equivalent

  Penny wise, pound foolish.

  Vocabulary

  • chytry — stingy, miserly, cunning (adjective used as a noun here)
  • dwa razy — twice, two times
  • tracić — to lose, to waste (imperfective); traci = third person singular present

  Grammar note

  "Chytry" is a substantivized adjective — an adjective functioning as a noun, meaning "the stingy one" or "the miser." This is a productive pattern in Polish proverbs. The verb "tracić" is imperfective, giving the statement a general, habitual sense ("always loses"). The word order emphasizes the subject's character first, then the double consequence.

  Cultural context

  "Chytry" in Polish can mean either "cunning" or "stingy/miserly" — in this proverb, it clearly means the latter. The proverb is widely used in everyday speech when advising against cheapness or when someone's attempt to save money has backfired. It is neutral in register and fully understood across all generations.

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