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  What it means

  “Whoever drinks with a peasant also ends up lying with him under the fence.” If you keep company with people of rough habits, you’ll share their fate, including sleeping off a binge in the gutter.

  English equivalent

  Lie down with dogs, get up with fleas.

  Vocabulary

  • chłop — peasant, man (colloquial)
  • pić — to drink
  • płot — fence
  • leżeć — to lie (down)

  Grammar note

  'Z chłopem' and 'z nim' both use the instrumental after 'z'. 'Pod płotem' is the instrumental of 'płot' after 'pod' (location).

  Cultural context

  Sleeping under a fence was a proverbial image of drunken destitution in old Polish village life.

  Intermediate

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