# Tell it to the marines.



## Encolpius

Hello, it is an idiomatic expression meaning I don't believe what you said. Here you can check it and an interesting Russian equivalent. Is there anything similar in Polish using the word grandmother? How would you translate it? Thanks.


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## dreamlike

Hello Encolpius,

I don't think there's any phrase in Polish using "grandmother" that has a similar meaning. I can hardly think of any equivalent, to be honest. We would probably just say "Takie rzeczy to sobie możesz .... [insert whoever you think is naive enough to believe a given lie] mówić". 

Another phrase that comes to my mind, albeit not a common one, is "Widzisz tutaj czołg?".

A) Wczoraj byłem w Las Vegas i wygrałem milion dolarów.
B) Widzisz tutaj czołg? (accompanied by making a gesture like this.)


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## Ben Jamin

dreamlike said:


> Hello Encolpius,
> 
> I don't think there's any phrase in Polish using "grandmother" that has a similar meaning. I can hardly think of any equivalent, to be honest. We would probably just say "Takie rzeczy to sobie możesz .... [insert whoever you think is naive enough to believe a given lie] mówić".
> 
> Another phrase that comes to my mind, albeit not a common one, is "Widzisz tutaj czołg?".
> 
> A) Wczoraj byłem w Las Vegas i wygrałem milion dolarów.
> B) Widzisz tutaj czołg? (accompanied by making a gesture like this.)



In old times we said:
 "Trawa mi prędzej na ręku wyrośnie". (Grass will rather grow om my hand palm).
"Nie truj" (literally: "Don't spread poison")
"Nie lej wody" (Don't pour water)
"Nie pieprz" (Don't shag).


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## dreamlike

Ben Jamin said:


> In old times we said:
> "Trawa mi prędzej na ręku wyrośnie". (Grass will rather grow om my hand palm).
> "Nie truj" (literally: "Don't spread poison")
> "Nie lej wody" (Don't pour water)
> "Nie pieprz" (Don't shag).



I am, of course, familiar with all of these, but "Nie truj" and "Nie lej wody" carry different meanings for me. The former means something along the lines of "Nie bądź upierdliwy" and the latter "W tym, co mówisz/piszesz, forma przerasta treść". My Polish teacher in high school used to tell us pupils not to "pour water" when writing a composition, for instance.


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## Thomas1

In colloquial Polish, I've come across:
No co ty?
Żartujesz?
Naprawdę?



dreamlike said:


> [...]
> Another phrase that comes to my mind, albeit not a common one, is "Widzisz tutaj czołg?".
> 
> A) Wczoraj byłem w Las Vegas i wygrałem milion dolarów.
> B) Widzisz tutaj czołg? (accompanied by making a gesture like this.)


I'm also familiar with: "Jedzie mi tu czołg?" to which you might hear the answer: "Tak, zatrzymał się na światłach."


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## Ben Jamin

dreamlike said:


> I am, of course, familiar with all of these, but "Nie truj" and "Nie lej wody" carry different meanings for me. The former means something along the lines of "Nie bądź upierdliwy" and the latter "W tym, co mówisz/piszesz, forma przerasta treść". My Polish teacher in high school used to tell us pupils not to "pour water" when writing a composition, for instance.


But the basic meaning of all these expressions is "I don't believe you". In addition they have those connotations you mentioned.


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## jasio

Thomas1 said:


> Na prawdę?



Naprawdę? 



Thomas1 said:


> I'm also familiar with: "Jedzie mi tu czołg?"



It can also be a tram: "jedzie mi tu tramwaj?"



dreamlike said:


> I am, of course, familiar with all of these, but "Nie truj" and "Nie lej wody" carry different meanings for me. The former means something along the lines of "Nie bądź upierdliwy" and the latter "W tym, co mówisz/piszesz, forma przerasta treść".



I would rather say, the *amount* of the text significantly exceeds the merit, a lot of talking/writing about nothing.


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## Thomas1

jasio said:


> Naprawdę?
> [...]


Naprawdę!  Sorry for the typo and thank you for the correction. 

***
As to the expression "Nie truj.", I'm with Dreamlike on this. I understand "complain, grumble, bellyache" form its core meaning. It needn't denote "disbelief", and if it does, it's rather triggered by context.

***
I'm not sure it's more wide-spread, but I've also heard "Co ty zalewasz?" as a form of exressing disbelief. I'd expect to hear it from people in their fifties or up.

EDIT: I think that the informal wording “Co ty/Pan/Pani/etc…?”, where “co” carries the main stress of the whole utterance, implies in itself disbelief and can therefore be generally used with many verbs of speech.
_Co Pani mówi?_
_Co Pan opowiada?_
_Co ty gadasz?_
_Co ty kitujesz?_
_Co on chrzani?_
_Co ona pieprzy?_
_Co Pani (nie) powie?_
_Co ty (nie) powiesz? _
“powiedzieć” is the only negated verb I could think of used this way. Unless we leave out "co", then some can be negated:
_Nie gadaj.
Nie mów.
_

There are also  “No co ty?”, “Nie opowiadaj.”, “Nie chce mi się w to wierzyć.”, “Włożyć coś między bajki.”, “Baju, baju (będziesz w raju.)”, “Nie wierzę własnym uszom.”, “Eee tam.”, “Gadanie!”, “Gadaj zdrów.”, “Tere-fere.”, “Bajki/Bajdy opowiada.”, "Tak, yhy.", "(Ta,) jasne."

Due to the nature of certain words, many of them are informal and some vulgar. Some can or have to be modified or used in a specific context or with a specific intonation. Some are used ironically or have their own nuances.


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