"Bez wysiłku nie ma sukcesu."

Translation: Without effort there is no success.

[ngfio]

Bez pracy nie ma kołaczy. ;)

[zagadka314]

Could be wrong, but I think "circular wedding bread" is not a good translation for kołaczy xD

So what is it?

[Emwue]

Depends on your definition of 'bread' – „kołacz” is a type of cheesecake, made from sweetened bread-like dough.

In reality, this idiom no longer makes sense, as the chief difficulty in making it was kneading the dough(after cheese is added it's serious hassle to make it smooth again), but that can now be taken care of by a mixer/kitchen robot/food processor, so making „kołacz” these days is pretty straightforward thing.

Obviously, if you want to make fancy shapes, like the ones Trofaste posted, it requires some work too, but once the dough has proper consistency, it's no harder(and no easier) than for example shaping pretzels, but truth be told, it's not really needed – by tradition, „kołacz” should be circular(after all, it's name derives from „koło” = 'wheel'), but vaguely bagel-like shape is 'good enough'. ;)

[zagadka314]

I love how it is translated to "circular wedding bread" on over 1000 sites xD

I noticed the connection to koło and figured that is where the "circular" part of "wedding bread" came from xD

Thanks for that explanation, it helps a lot! You should update the dictionary and wikipedia xD

[Emwue]

There is nothing to update, really – if your definition of bread includes sweetened breads too(instead of considering them cakes), 'circular wedding bread' is an apt description if a bit cheesy. :P

Wikipedia has an article about it, simply called „Kołacz”, though. ;)

[Trofaste]

Is it basically "without labour there is no glory"? In other words, "no pain, no gain"?

[zagadka314]

Without work, there is no "circular wedding bread" xD

[Jellei]

Sometimes the proverb is so old, that a word from it is actually not used at all aside from the proverb itself ;) And a Polish person does not really even think about the fact that he/she doesn't understand the literal meaning...

[dj___]

What’s wrong?
Except it’s not necessarily a wedding one…

[Trofaste]

Actually, on further thought, "Without work there is no this kind of cake"? It must be a complicated cake to make, but if it's a wedding cake that would actually make sense.

[zagadka314]

I can't believe how many sites translate it this way xD

My favorite is from this Wikipedia article: Belonging to Wierzbica Górna are the rural hamlets Międzybrodzie and Leśnicówka (Wałda) along with settlements Cegielnia (brickyard) and Kołaczek (circular wedding bread).

[Trofaste]

That's what a Google image search gave me. And that looks like a real pain to make. This begins to make sense. No pain (making the thing), no gain (no finished bread). Makes more sense than half the idioms I've heard, actually! :D

[Kabi90]

"no pain, no gain" should be also an acceptable answer

[Winterhen]

Dlaczego "Without an effort there is no success" jest złą odpowiedzią? Konkretnie chodzi mi o "an".

[deactivated user]

Effort jest tak jak News, Air, Trash, i tak dalej które nie można się liczyć po angielsku. Nie można mieć na przykład 'one news' więc nie używamy 'a news.'

Kilka przykłady:
"Some effort"
"A lot of effort"
"No effort"
"You put in too much effort"
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_noun

[Winterhen]

Wielkie dzięki za wytłumaczenie :)
Trochę mnie zmyliły przykłady, z którymi miałam styczność czytając teksty w internecie (wiadomo, że jest w nim sporo błędów, ale po prostu "osłuchała" mi się taka wersja i teraz ciężko mi ją wykorzenić). Np tutaj:
http://pl.bab.la/slownik/angielski-polski/make-an-effort
Często spotykam się z tym zwrotem w tytułach artykułów, typu "Make more money without an effort" itp, z resztą po wpisaniu frazy w google wyskakują nawet strony słowników więc to może wprowadzać w błąd.

[Simone76]

To jak będzie z tym "No pain, no gain."? Chyba znajomość wyrażeń idiomatycznych powinna być poczytywana za + ...?

[Jellei]

Hmmm... czemużby nie, w sumie ;) Dodałem.

[Arnoldpitt]

Is there any audible difference between "o" (with an accent), "u" and "il" with a sash on the l)

[Jellei]

Ó and U - not really.

"ił"? well, it's a completely different thing.

In some words, where 'U' is preceded by a vowel, it does sound like Ł. (like "auto", which sounds like "ałto" and not "a-u-to".