• Listen

  What it means

  Literally “dirty work” or “dirty job,” where brudna means dirty or filthy and robota means work, job, or task (a slightly informal synonym of praca). Figuratively it refers to any task that is unpleasant, morally questionable, or involves deception or harm — the kind of job someone else is paid or pressured to carry out while those in power keep their hands clean. It can also describe literal messy physical labour in context, but the figurative sense is far more common.

  Vocabulary

  • brudna — dirty, filthy (feminine adjective agreeing with robota)
  • robota — work, job, task (informal; feminine noun)
  • brudny — dirty (masculine base form of the adjective)

  Grammar note

  Robota is a feminine noun, so the adjective brudny takes the feminine nominative form brudna. The phrase is most often used as a noun phrase (subject or object): Ktoś musi wykonać brudną robotę (Someone has to do the dirty work). In the accusative (after wykonać, zlecić, etc.) it becomes brudną robotę, with both words declining.

  Cultural context

  Brudna robota is a colloquial to neutral phrase with a slightly negative moral undertone. It is very common in Polish films, crime fiction, and everyday speech to describe shady assignments — spying on someone, intimidating a rival, covering up a scandal. It is a direct parallel to the English expression 'dirty work' and is used in similar contexts.

  Beginner

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