🤖 Literally, in English
“When there are no fish, a crayfish is a fish too.”
На безриб'ї і рак риба. Na bezrybyi i rak ryba
🤨 What does it ACTUALLY mean? →
🇬🇧 What you'd actually say
“You take what you can get.”
also: “Beggars can't be choosers.” · “It'll do — there's nothing better.”
- 📖 Meaning
- When nothing better is available, something poor becomes acceptable.
- 💡 Why it's funny
- The literal version is a short lesson in reclassifying wildlife on the basis of scarcity: no fish today, so the crayfish has been promoted.
- 🧭 Closest English idiom
- “Beggars can't be choosers.”
- 📝 Explanation
- Said about substitutes of every kind — the only restaurant still open, a stand-in speaker, an old laptop that will have to do for another year. Resigned rather than bitter.
🧠 Learn
- take what you can get (phrase) — to accept what is available instead of what you wanted — брати, що є “There was one seat left, so I took what I could get.”
- available (adjective) — able to be used or obtained — доступний, наявний “That's the only room available.”
🗣 In context
Кава з автомата, але на безриб'ї і рак риба.
It's vending machine coffee, but you take what you can get.
🎧 Hear the contrast
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