- English translation
The one who shares with you is the one who will quarrel with you.
- Literal wording
Your partner, your adversary.
- Meaning and lesson
The saying sets the person you share with beside the person you contend with and presents them as one and the same. Its point is that partnership and disagreement travel together: those bound in a common undertaking are the ones who end up at odds.
Taken as advice, it warns that anyone entering a partnership should expect friction to come along with it. It describes a pattern rather than claiming every partner is hostile or condemning a particular partner, so it can be offered as a sober reminder instead of an insult.
- When it is used
Fits moments when someone is about to take on a partner, as a dry reminder that sharing an undertaking brings disagreement with it. It also suits the aftermath, when partners have fallen out and someone remarks that such friction was to be expected.
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
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