Kochajmy się jak bracia, rachujmy się jak Żydzi
Listen
What it means
Variant using ‘rachujmy się’. Love like brothers, but keep careful accounts. Friendship and finances should be handled differently.
Vocabulary
- kochać się — to love each other
- brat — brother
- rachować się — to reckon with each other, to settle accounts (older/dialectal)
- Żyd — Jew
Grammar note
'Rachujmy się' is the cohortative first-person plural of 'rachować się', an older/dialectal synonym of 'liczyć się'.
Cultural context
Variant of the 'liczmy się' form. 'Rachować' is an older word for counting/reckoning, giving this version a more archaic flavour.
Advanced
Noticed a typo, a wrong translation, or anything that doesn't look right? We'd love to fix it — just let us know via the contact page. Thank you!
More Polish proverbs
- "A stepmother, even if made of sugar, is always bitter." However kind she may be, a stepmother may …
- "For a wise head, two words are enough." A clever person needs only a short hint to understand. Long …
- "A Pole is wise after the damage is done." Poles, or people in general, often learn from mistakes …
- "The wise will accept advice; the fool will reject it with scorn." Wise people listen to advice, …