THE WRITING’S ON THE PACKET:

This is why I continue to think this language here is impossible to grasp..! I’m eating a bag of crisps, right – ‘chips’ in English here (and Polish I think)..! Anyway for months now, when buying bargains in the shops, I’ve taken any + % on packets of consumables as meaning something extra to scoff for the same price – understandable, and almost correct as it happens, but anyway... On eating my big bag of crisps tonight while downing my third can of Krolewskie I’m looking at the bag with it’s proclamation of 40% GRATIS with great interest, wondering just why this cost me more than a regular bag, and in consequence, just what “Gratis’ means in Polish afteral..? So, check this out in my huge Angielsko-Polski dictionary, but can only find the word ‘Grat’, which translates as ‘Junk’, followed by it’s adv., spelt ‘Gratis’! Weird I think, so send the following text off to Daniel:

If ‘grat’ means ‘junk’, and ‘gratis’ is the adverb, (I know, weird?) of ‘grat’, why have I got 40% in my bag of crisps eh? TO which the reply was:

Grat means an old piece of furniture or equipment, [so as an adverb, gratis can mean anything from lots of rubbish items, or some nice bit of crap, or hmm.., one really pathetic jalopy of a car] and anyway, GRATIS is Latin for Free, in case you’re not taking the Mickey :-) So Gratis might mean a shit car if that’s what you’re pointing at, but on a packet of crisps or fish fingers it means ‘free’… Why are you eating such Junk anyway?

But, eh? WHAT does all that mean and why did I pay extra for free crisps – sorry chips?