🤖 Literally, in English
“What is written with a pen cannot be chopped out even with an axe.”
Що написано пером, того не вирубаєш і сокирою. Shcho napysano perom, toho ne vyrubayesh i sokyroyu
🤨 What does it ACTUALLY mean? →
🇬🇧 What you'd actually say
“Once it's written down, you can't take it back.”
also: “What's in writing stays in writing.” · “You can't unsay something once it's on paper.”
- 📖 Meaning
- Written words are permanent — think before you sign or send.
- 💡 Why it's funny
- The image escalates fast: the solution to a written sentence is apparently an axe, and even that fails.
- 🧭 Closest English idiom
- No direct English equivalent. English has 'the pen is mightier than the sword', but that is about influence, not permanence. There is no common English idiom about written words being impossible to remove.
- 📝 Explanation
- Used about contracts, official documents, and increasingly about messages and posts online.
🧠 Learn
- take something back (phrase) — to say that you did not mean what you said — забрати слова назад “I take it back — I was wrong.”
- in writing (phrase) — written down, as an official record — письмово “Please confirm it in writing.”
🗣 In context
Перечитай лист перед відправкою — що написано пером…
Reread the email before sending — once it's written down, you can't take it back.
🎧 Hear the contrast
dontpushthehorses.xyz
