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Five old Spanish sayings you’ll learn from abuelos

Spanish sayings don't always make sense when translated literally but quite often have an equivalent idiom in English.

Published: 21 February 2020 12:59 CET

Five old Spanish sayings you'll learn from abuelos

The old ones are often the best ones. Photo: AFP

The Spanish word 'refrán' means saying or proverb.

Ese es un viejo refrán que siempre lo decía mi abuelo.

That is an old saying that my grandfather said all the time.

Here are some of our favourite old Spanish sayings and the equivalent english idiom.

Más vale pájaro en mano que ciento volando.

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

A quien madruga, dios le ayuda.

The early bird catches the worm.

A buen entendedor, pocas palabras bastan.

A word is enough to the wise.

No hay mal que por bien no venga

Every cloud has a silver lining.

Dime con quién andas y te diré cómo eres.

Hunt with cats and you'll only catch rats

Check out our other word of the day posts

This language article been contributed by LAE Madrid, the leading Spanish academy in Madrid. Accredited by the Insitituto Cervantes, it offers Spanish courses for all levels and also has Spanish classes for kids and families.

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Spanish Expression of the Day: En el quinto pino

Spanish is a language full of rich and historical idioms. Often they can seem (to non-native speakers at least) completely random or unrelated to the point or conversation at hand, but learning a few is a good way to deepen your understanding and even show off to some Spaniards.

Showing that you’ve taken the time to learn a few colloquial phrases, of which The Local has explained loads and you can find them all here, will really endear you to locals and also help your comprehension skills. As is often the case in language learning, once you’ve learned a new word or phrase you’ll suddenly start hearing it everywhere you go.

On this occasion we’re looking at the expression en el quinto pino.

First, some translations. Literally speaking ‘en el quinto pino‘ means in/at the fifth pine or pine tree, but it’s actually colloquial phrase Spaniards use to mean that something is ‘far away’ or ‘miles away’.

It could also be translated as ‘in the middle of nowhere’ or ‘out in the sticks’ and is generally used to mean somewhere physically far away from where you are and difficult to get to.

The Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) defines quinto pino as ‘a very distant place’ or a place ‘very far away’.

There are other colloquial ways of saying this, including en el quinto coño (in the fifth c*nt, it sounds terrible but the Spanish C-word isn’t as bad as in English) and a tomar por culo (to be taken up the bum), but these as you can imagine are pretty rude, even though they are used a lot. We obviously recommend that you either say muy lejos (very far) or en el quinto pino.

So, what’s the history and etymology behind the expression en el quinto pino? Is it something to do with being lost in the woods, or having to travel through a forest to get somewhere far away?

Not quite. The origin comes from Madrid during the reign of Felipe V in the 18th century. He decided to plant five large pine trees in the city, the last of which was located on the outskirts of the capital.

This point soon became known as a meeting place for lovers, and this is how the expression ‘irse al quinto pino’ first became popular, referring to the specific location in Madrid.

With time it slowly changed in usage and eventually ended up meaning ‘far away’ in a more general way that could be in Spain or beyond.

Examples:

Pedro, no podemos volver andando esta noche. La casa está en el quinto pino.

Pedro, we can’t walk back tonight. The house is in the middle of nowhere.

Tengo que ir a una reunión esta tarde y está en el quinto pino.

I’ve got to go to a meeting this afternoon and it’s miles away.

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