🤖 Literally, in English
“May your road be a tablecloth.”
Скатертиною дорога. Skatertynoyu doroha
🤨 What does it ACTUALLY mean? →
🇬🇧 What you'd actually say
“Off you go, then — nobody's stopping you.”
also: “Don't let the door hit you on the way out.” · “Good riddance.”
- 📖 Meaning
- A sarcastic send-off: leave if you want, you will not be missed.
- 💡 Why it's funny
- Taken literally it is a lovely blessing about a beautifully laid road, delivered in the tone of someone holding the door open for you.
- 🧭 Closest English idiom
- “Don't let the door hit you on the way out.”
- 📝 Explanation
- Said to someone threatening to walk out. The russified form «скатертю дорога» is what you will hear most often in speech; «скатертиною» is the literary Ukrainian. Worth knowing that the phrase was originally a genuine good wish — a smooth road — and only later turned sarcastic.
🧠 Learn
- good riddance (phrase) — said when you are glad someone has gone — скатертиною дорога “He resigned? Good riddance.”
- send-off (noun) — the way people say goodbye to someone leaving — проводи “They gave him a warm send-off.”
🗣 In context
Не подобається — скатертиною дорога.
If you don't like it, don't let the door hit you on the way out.
🎧 Hear the contrast
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