What does the expression ‘Babushka nadvoe skazala’ (‘Grandma said in two’) mean?
When the phrase “Babushka nadvoe skazala” ("Grandma said in two") is heard in a conversation, it immediately becomes clear that there is no certainty. No matter what the conversation is about, it will not be possible to accurately predict anything.
It is believed that this expression came from the proverb: "Grandmother was wondering, but she said in two ways: either rain or snow; either it will happen or it won’t." And it is connected with fortune-telling and predictions of fate. The fortune teller is the same elderly woman who could decipher the meanings of cards, laying them out, suggesting two scenarios for the development of events. For example, love - not love, come true - not come true. This, by the way, is where the proverb "said in two" comes from. That is, spread the cards on two sides. For example, one of the variants of this expression sounds like this: “Baba vorozhila, nadvoye polozhila” ("Grandma cast a spell, she laid it in two.")
The expression "Grandma said in two", however, is used with a certain degree of irony: after all, such predictions have an accuracy of no more than 50 percent. Like "as the card falls", so it will happen. And it is impossible to predict how exactly, because everything is “vilami po vode pisano” ("written on water with a pitchfork"): you can say this about the uncertainty of the situation.
