🤖 Literally, in English
“You don't look into the teeth of a gifted horse.”
Дарованому коневі в зуби не заглядають. Darovanomu konevi v zuby ne zahliadayut
🤨 What does it ACTUALLY mean? →
🇬🇧 What you'd actually say
“Don't criticise a gift.”
also: “Be grateful for what you're given.” · “Don't complain about a present.”
- 📖 Meaning
- Don't find fault with something you were given for free.
- 💡 Why it's funny
- Here the joke is that there is no joke: English has the identical horse-dentistry idiom, which surprises people who expect the two languages to be unrelated.
- 🧭 Closest English idiom
- “Don't look a gift horse in the mouth.”
- 📝 Explanation
- Said to someone who complains about the colour, size, or brand of a present, or about help they did not pay for.
- 🏛 Cultural context
- Both versions come from the practice of judging a horse's age and health by its teeth before buying it.
🧠 Learn
- gift (noun) — something given to you for free — подарунок “It was a gift from my sister.”
- find fault with (phrase) — to look for things to criticise — прискіпуватися “He finds fault with everything I cook.”
🗣 In context
Не подобається колір? Дарованому коневі в зуби не заглядають.
You don't like the colour? Don't look a gift horse in the mouth.
🎧 Hear the contrast
dontpushthehorses.xyz
