• Listen

  What it means

  Literally: “A bad ballerina is hindered by the hem of her skirt.” The proverb means that an incompetent or unskilled person will always find external excuses for their failures, blaming circumstances, tools, or trivial obstacles rather than their own lack of ability. Just as a poor dancer blames her skirt instead of improving her dancing, a poor performer blames anything but themselves. Used to dismiss someone’s excuses when the real problem is their own incompetence.

  English equivalent

  A bad workman blames his tools.

  Vocabulary

  • zły — bad (adjective; złej is the dative/genitive feminine form)
  • baletnica — ballerina, ballet dancer (feminine noun; baletnicy is the genitive)
  • przeszkadzać — to hinder, to bother, to get in the way (imperfective verb)
  • rąbek — hem, edge, border (masculine noun)
  • spódnica — skirt (feminine noun; spódnicy is the genitive)

  Grammar note

  The verb "przeszkadzać" (to hinder/bother) governs the dative case — so "złej baletnicy" (the bad ballerina) is in the dative, indicating the person who is hindered. "Złej" is the dative feminine form of "zły." The subject is "rąbek u spódnicy" (the hem of the skirt) in the nominative. "U spódnicy" uses the preposition "u" (at/of) with the genitive to mean "on/of the skirt."

  Cultural context

  This is a distinctly Polish and colorful proverb with no exact English equivalent — the closest parallel is "a bad workman blames his tools." The reference to a ballerina and her skirt makes it vivid and memorable. It is used at a neutral to slightly colloquial register and carries a gently ironic or dismissive tone. It works well in both spoken and written Polish.

  Intermediate

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!