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  What it means

  Literally, “Another person’s work does not enrich you.” The proverb asserts that relying on someone else’s labour will never lead to your own prosperity. It encourages personal effort and self-reliance, warning against laziness and free-riding on others’ efforts. Poles may use it to rebuke someone taking credit for work they did not do. It shares the broader Polish cultural emphasis on earned success.

  English equivalent

  You reap what you sow.

  Vocabulary

  • cudzy — someone else's, another's (adjective from cudzy = foreign/other's)
  • praca — work, labour (nominative singular feminine)
  • wzbogacać — to enrich, to make wealthy (imperfective verb)
  • nie — not (negation particle, placed directly before the verb)
  • bogaty — rich, wealthy (adjective, root of wzbogacać)

  Grammar note

  'Cudza' is the feminine form of the adjective 'cudzy,' agreeing with the feminine noun 'praca.' The verb 'wzbogaca' is third-person singular present tense of the imperfective 'wzbogacać.' The negation 'nie' precedes the verb, as is standard in Polish. The prefix 'wz-' on the verb indicates an augmentative change of state — literally 'to make [someone] rich.'

  Cultural context

  This proverb reflects the work ethic embedded in Polish peasant and middle-class culture. It is used in neutral or slightly admonishing register to remind others of personal responsibility. Its positive counterpart is 'Praca wzbogaca' (Work enriches), which states the same idea from the other direction.

  Beginner

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