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  What it means

  Literally “When you come among crows, caw as they do.” If you enter a new group, community, or place, you should adapt to their customs and ways rather than imposing your own. Resistance to local norms only marks you as an outsider and makes life harder. The proverb advises pragmatic conformity rather than stubborn individualism.

  English equivalent

  When in Rome, do as the Romans do.

  Vocabulary

  • przyjść — to come, to arrive (perfective)
  • przyjdziesz — you will come (2nd person singular future perfective)
  • między — among, between (+ accusative for direction)
  • wrona — crow
  • wrony — crows (accusative plural after między)
  • kraczeć — to caw (the cry of a crow, imperfective)
  • kraczże — caw! (imperative + emphatic particle -że)
  • ony — they (archaic/dialectal 3rd-person plural pronoun)

  Grammar note

  Między + accusative (wrony) indicates movement toward or into a group — 'coming among crows.' The imperative kraczże is formed by adding the emphatic particle -że to kraczeć, making it more urgent or vivid ('just caw!'). Ony is an archaic/regional form of the 3rd-person plural pronoun one (they), rarely heard in modern standard Polish but preserved in proverbs and folk speech.

  Cultural context

  The archaic ony and the -że emphatic suffix give this proverb a distinctly old-fashioned, folk flavour. It is the closest Polish equivalent of 'When in Rome, do as the Romans do' and is used in similar situations — advising someone new to a job, city, or country to observe and adapt rather than resist. It can be said supportively or as a mild rebuke.

  Intermediate

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