Spanish proverbs and their English equivalents

Proverbs are where dictionaries stop helping. “A quien madruga, Dios le ayuda” literally means “God helps whoever gets up early”. What it actually says is “the early bird catches the worm”. Translate it word for word and the point gets lost.

Here are 75 Spanish proverbs with the English saying that means the same thing. Each one links to its own page with an example sentence and pronunciation.

The best-known ones

These fifteen will get you through most conversations:

Time, patience and opportunity

más vale tarde que nunca: Better late than never
a quien madruga, Dios le ayuda: The early bird catches the worm
la esperanza es la última que muere: Hope springs eternal
la ocasión hace ladrón: Opportunity makes a thief
querer es poder: Where there's a will, there's a way

Appearance and reality

no es oro todo lo que reluce: All that glitters is not gold
las apariencias engañan: Appearances can be deceiving
mucho ruido y pocas nueces: Much ado about nothing
perro ladrador, poco mordedor: Barking dogs seldom bite
una golondrina no hace verano: One swallow doesn't make a summer

People and behavior

de tal palo, tal astilla: The apple doesn't fall far from the tree
a caballo regalado no le mires el diente: Don't look a gift horse in the mouth
en boca cerrada no entran moscas: Silence is golden
zapatero, a tus zapatos: Cobbler, stick to your last
ojos que no ven, corazón que no siente: What the eye doesn't see, the heart doesn't grieve over

The Spanish version is rarely a word-for-word match of the English one. Sometimes both languages use the same image, as with the gift horse. More often, each found its own picture for the same experience.

Why you can't translate proverbs word for word

“Mucho ruido y pocas nueces” literally means “lots of noise and few nuts”. Picture someone cracking nuts very loudly, with little to show for it. English says “much ado about nothing”: the same verdict, a different image.

“En boca cerrada no entran moscas” means “no flies get into a closed mouth”. The advice is to keep quiet, which English puts as “silence is golden”.

Some proverbs travel almost unchanged. “A caballo regalado no le mires el diente” is the same gift horse you shouldn't look in the mouth, and “de tal palo, tal astilla” (from such a stick, such a splinter) is close to “a chip off the old block”. Those are the exceptions, though. That's why it's best to learn a proverb as a whole, together with the situation people use it in. The individual words won't get you there.

All 75 proverbs

In alphabetical order, with the English equivalent. Each one links to its page with an example sentence and pronunciation.

Set phrases that aren't proverbs, such as “echar de menos”, “sin embargo” or “por si acaso”, are in the list of idioms and expressions.

Frequently asked questions

What is the most famous Spanish proverb?+

“Más vale tarde que nunca” (better late than never) and “de tal palo, tal astilla” (the apple doesn't fall far from the tree) are the ones you hear most often in everyday life. Both work in almost any situation.

Can I translate Spanish proverbs literally?+

Usually not. A few share the English image, like the gift horse in “a caballo regalado no le mires el diente”. Most use a different one: “a quien madruga, Dios le ayuda” is about God helping early risers, while English has the early bird and the worm. Learn the proverb as a whole and remember the English equivalent with it.

At what level should I learn Spanish proverbs?+

From B1 to B2. Before that, you lack the vocabulary to recognize them in conversation. That's why Recallo puts them at the start of the advanced part of the learning path.

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