• Listen

  What it means

  “The eggs are wiser than the hen.” An older variant expressing the same idea as ‘Mądrzejsze jajko od kury’ , a younger or less experienced person presumes to know better than their elders.

  English equivalent

  Don't teach your grandmother to suck eggs.

  Vocabulary

  • mędrzejszy — wiser (archaic comparative)
  • jajca — eggs (archaic/colloquial plural)
  • kokosz — hen (archaic)

  Grammar note

  'Niż' introduces the second element of comparison. 'Kokosz' is an archaic word for hen; modern Polish uses 'kura'.

  Cultural context

  An older form of the proverb. The archaic vocabulary marks it as coming from earlier centuries of Polish.

  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!