Thread: "When it's free..."

An old friend of mine once told me about a Russian saying that went something like.... "When it's free, the vinegar tastes like sugar."


Anyone familiar with that? Can someone spell it out phonetically for me?

Да, шутили: "За бесплатно и уксус сладкий.".
Фонетически пусть кто-то другой напишет.

На халяву и уксус сладкий.
Na halyavu i uksus sladkiy.

Originally Posted by Sleep

Na halyavu i uksus sladkiy.

that's it!

that's what he used to say.

Thanks!

I suggest modern version of this proverb
За чужой счет пьют даже трезвенники и язвенники.
Actually it's a quote from a movie.

Меня особенно умиляет реклама в стиле

Buy <five boxes of some sh*t> and receive a free gift

Doesn't the word 'gift' strongly imply that it has to be free ( or otherwise it's not a gift at all )? What's the point of adding 'free' then?

Originally Posted by DenisM

Doesn't the word 'gift' strongly imply that it has to be free ( or otherwise it's not a gift at all )? What's the point of adding 'free' then?

You're right . A gift is something that's freely given. I've wondered about that myself - it was probably just some half-educated businessman's ploy to attract more customers. And when it worked, everybody copied him. Hey - business is business, who cares about proper word usage , right??

Русский вариант такой чуши выглядит следующим образом:

Пришли пять крышечек от напитка <...> и получи майку с надписью "ЛОХ".