No matter how old you get, you can always benefit from a little advice when it comes to el amor (love).
Excitingly, some of what the Spanish language has to say about love doesn’t even exist in English!
Here is a list of some of the best Spanish love proverbs—both new and old—to guide you along the path of life, love and Spanish language acquirement.
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Proverbs About Unrequited Love
We’ve all been there at one point or another. When we were young our crush would check “yes” or “no.” Now we’re the ones checking our cell phones every five minutes to see if our beloved has texted us back.
Unrequited love hurts, but it can sure become a great muse for poetry. Here’s some wisdom from the Spanish language to help you make it through.
1. Amar y no ser amado es tiempo mal empleado
Literal Translation: To love and not be loved is time badly employed.
Figurative Translation: To love and not be loved in return is time poorly spent.
Yes, this does include Facebook stalking your crush. From someone who’s been there, believe me when I say it’s a complete waste of time.
2. Amor no correspondido, tiempo perdido
Literal Translation: Love not replied, time lost.
Figurative Translation: Similar to the previous proverb on the list, if your love doesn’t reply to your invitation to join the love parade, it’s not a parade at all—it’s a waste of your time.
3. Amor loco, yo por vos y vos por otro
Literal Translation: Crazy love, I for you and you for another.
Figurative Translation: It’s crazy to love someone who doesn’t love you, but loves another instead. (Note: vos means “you” in Argentinean Spanish.)
4. De ilusión también se vive
Literal Translation: Of hope also one lives.
Figurative Translation: Life is not always about “getting there” or getting what you want, but also about the dreaming of getting there. Hopes and dreams are what keep us going.
This Spanish proverb is said to console when life doesn’t grant us our yearnings. Whenever I hear the Spanish word ilusión it always makes me think of “illusion” because of its similarity in spelling to this English word. Ilusión is an interesting Spanish word because it can be used in three different ways:
- to speak of enthusiasm, excitement and hopeful anticipation of something that will happen
- to speak of wishful thinking, hopes and dreams (things you want to happen)
- to speak of illusion, delusion and mirages
Proverbs About Tainted Love
Most of us have been here as well, although we may have been in denial of the fact throughout the entire relationship. We knew the relationship was all wrong, but we didn’t really want to be right. The Spanish advice? Let it go!
5. Agua que no has de beber, déjala correr
Literal translation: Water that you shouldn’t drink, let it run.
Figurative translation: If it’s not working, let it go.
Never before has this advice been so relevant! In modern times, you decide you need to let someone go and then you still see their face in your cell phone contacts and on at least three different social platforms. Block them, delete them, do whatever is necessary. Let them go.
6. Amor de niño, agua en cestillo
Literal Translation: Puppy love—water in a basket.
Figurative Translation: Young love is fickle.
This Spanish proverb is used both to refer to the love that children can give and to the temporal nature of the love between adolescents. What a great metaphor for the instability that often comes with young love!
Note that cestillo is the Spanish diminutive for cesto/a, which means basket. Canasta/o is another synonym for basket.
7. Los celos son señales de amor, pero también de inseguridad
Literal Translation: Jealousy is a sign of love, but also of insecurity.
Figurative Translation: Being jealous of your significant other (or someone they’re paying attention to) may mean you’re truly in love, but it also means you’re insecure.
8. Amor y celos, hermanos gemelos
Literal Translation: Love and jealousy, twin siblings.
Figurative Translation: It’s rare to find love without jealousy.
While gemelos/gemelas is the Spanish word for “identical twins,” mellizos/mellizas is the word used for “fraternal twins.”
9. El tiempo todo lo cura
Literal Translation: Time cures all wounds.
Figurative Translation: Even if something feels like it will be painful forever (like a break up), in time, you will feel better about it.
10. Del amor al odio hay un paso
Literal Translation: From love to hate there is one step.
Figurative Translation: There’s a fine line between love and hate. (Neuroscience has proved this to be true! The emotions of love and hate take place in overlapping parts of the brain.)
11. Amor a primera vista, un error a la vista
Literal Translation: Love at first sight, a mistake in sight.
Figurative Translation: Love at first sight may feel wonderful and exciting, but it’s often not the real thing because you haven’t thought it out. So use caution.
Proverbs About Tough Love
This is the kind of love we do want to let go of sometimes, but—according to these Spanish proverbs—should hold on to.
12. Quien bien te quiere, te hará llorar
Literal Translation: Who loves you well will make you cry.
Figurative Translation: Those who really care about you will give you tough love.
13. Donde hay amor, hay dolor
Literal Translation: Where there’s love, there’s pain.
Figurative Translation: When you love someone you’ll suffer pain albeit through empathy or jealousy.
This should be easy to remember considering the fact that “love” and “pain” rhyme in Spanish: amor, dolor, amor, dolor…but, then again, do we really need a reminder of their close connection>
14. Hijo sin dolor, madre sin amor
Literal Translation: Child without pain, mother without love.
Figurative Translation: If you love your children you’ll discipline them.
I think this old Spanish proverb might have escaped some of the parents of the children in my high school. Although I’ll admit that this proverb is much easier said than done!
Proverbs About Loving the One You’re With
Similar to tough love, here we have the kind of love that’s just getting a bit boring and tedious. The Spanish advice in this case? Just stick it out.
15. Más vale pájaro en mano que cien volando
Literal translation: A bird in your hand is worth more than a hundred flying.
Figurative translation: A small thing in hand is worth more than a great thing in prospect. Be grateful for what you have rather than what you think might be out there.
This proverb can obviously be applied to more than just love. Of all the Spanish proverbs I’ve come across in the past two years, I’d say that I hear this one often and in a variety of situations, gambling being a more obvious one.
16. No dejes camino viejo por sendero nuevo
Literal Translation: Don’t leave old road for new trail.
Figurative Translation: It’s better to stick with what you already know works.
Once again, this proverb could be applied to more than just romantic situations. For example, you could give this advice to a friend looking at a new job in a different country. I, however, would tell that friend “Go for it!”
Spanish culture is very family-oriented, which is part of why I fell in love with the culture here, but sometimes that tightly knit community can keep the Spanish from ever venturing out of their neighborhoods.
17. Riñen a menudo los amantes, por el gusto de hacer las paces
Literal Translation: Lovers often quarrel for the pleasure of making peace.
Figurative Translation: Lovers quarrels are soon mended.
Ever met a couple that just loved to fight? According to the Spanish, lovers will do this just for the heck of the pleasurable experience of making up afterwards. If you’re not used to being around Spaniards, it sometimes sounds like they’re always fighting during discussions. I used to get a little tense in these situations, but now I understand that the excited intonation is all just part of the pleasure of discourse here.
Proverbs About Long-distance Love
Even with an incredible and free invention like Skype, Spanish proverbs on long-distance love haven’t really become more optimistic over the years. Here’s an older proverb followed by a more recent one.
18. El que no mira, no suspira
Literal Translation: The one that doesn’t look doesn’t sigh.
Figurative Translation: If you don’t see your loved one, you’ll stop sighing: long absent, soon forgotten.
19. Amor de lejos, felices los cuatro
Literal Translation: Love from afar, happy are the four.
Figurative Translation: When love is experienced from a distance, there’s a high chance one or both in the relationship will eventually fall in love with someone else and start a new one—too often without parting ways with their former love—hence, the “happy” four.
20. Amor de lejos, amor de pendejos
Literal Translation: Long-distance love is for dumba**es.
Figurative Translation: Long-distance relationships are for fools.
The P-word is not used in Spain so this isn’t a proverb I’ve personally ever put to use here in Madrid. However, in other Spanish-speaking countries you’ll be sure to come across this fun saying. As you can see, in general Spanish proverbs seem to shun long-distance love. However, the following phrase shows some optimism towards the idea.
21. La ausencia es al amor lo que al fuego el aire: que apaga al pequeño y aviva al grande
Literal Translation: Absence is to love what fire to air: that it puts out the small and rekindles the big.
Figurative Translation: Absence makes the heart grow fonder. (But only if your love is big enough in this case.)
Proverbs About Unstoppable Love
Be bold in love—YOLO!
22. El amor no respeta ley ni obedece a rey
Literal Translation: Love doesn’t respect any law, nor obeys any king.
Figurative Translation: Love laughs at locksmiths./Love knows no bounds.
23. Amor de madre, agua en el desierto
Literal Translation: A mother’s love—water in the desert.
Figurative Translation: A mother’s love is a very essential kind of love in this world.
24. Frente al amor y la muerte no sirve de nada ser fuerte
Literal translation: When facing love and death, being strong is pointless.
Figurative translation: We’re all defenseless against two great powers: love and death.
25. En el amor y en la guerra, todo se vale
Literal translation: In love and war, anything goes.
Figurative translation: In situations involving love or conflict (such as war), people often feel justified in using whatever means necessary to achieve their goals, regardless of whether those means are ethical, moral or fair.
26. El amor todo lo puede
Literal Translation: Love can do it all.
Figurative Translation: Love can do anything/Love will find a way.
27. Más tira el amor que una yunta de bueyes
Literal Translation: More pulls love than a pair of oxen.
Figurative Translation: “Love pulls stronger than a pair of oxen”or simply “love is stronger.”
This Spanish proverb is slightly old-fashioned but useful nonetheless. I’ve also come across a slightly more colorful rendition of this saying which shifts the focus to a woman’s generous endowment: un par de tetas tira más que una yunta de bueyes (a woman’s chest pulls more than a pair of oxen). I’m sure you can guess what the figurative meaning of that might be.
Proverbs About Love Lost
Sorrow, heartache, lost love—sounds like a good recipe for a flamenco song. Not exactly where we’d like to find ourselves in the game of love though. According to these Spanish proverbs being alone isn’t so bad, however.
28. El tiempo lo cura todo
Literal Translation: Time it cures everything.
Figurative Translation: Time heals all wounds.
Time heals all wounds or time wounds all heels? Perhaps a bit of both.
Spain has taught me that una caña (a small beer) and dry-cured jamón (ham) also heal all wounds.
29. Un clavo saca otro clavo
Literal Translation: One nail takes out another nail.
Figurative translation: In order to forget a lost love you must find a new one.
This phrase originates from the poem “Tonás y livianas” by Spanish poet Manuel Machado (older brother of the famous Antonio Machado):
“Quita una pena otra pena, un dolor otro dolor,
un clavo saca otro clavo y un amor quita otro amor.”
(One sorrow wipes out another sorrow, one pain another pain,
a nail takes out another nail and a new love erases the memory of an old one.)
30. Chancla que yo tiro, no la vuelvo a levantar
Literal translation: Slide that I drop I’m not picking back up.
Figurative translation: Once I let you go, I will never take you back.
This proverb originated from “La chancla (the slide),” a song by legendary Mexican songwriter and film producer Antonio Aguilar, where man rejects a former lover after her deserting him for someone else.
31. Hay mucho más donde elegir
Literal Translation: There’s a lot more where to choose.
Figurative Translation: There are plenty more fish in the sea.
English definitely takes the cake here for the more metaphorical proverb.
32. Más vale estar solo que mal acompañado
Literal Translation: Being alone is more worth than in poor company.
Figurative Translation: It’s better to be on your own than with people you don’t like.
33. El amor es el vino que más pronto se avinagra
Literal Translation: Love is the wine that soonest goes sour.
Figurative Translation: An untended relationship is almost certain to fail.
Proverbs About Love and Money
The financial crisis in Spain has money at the forefront of many Spaniard’s minds these days. According to the majority of these proverbs, the prospect of love flourishing in tough financial times is unlikely. According to my PDA radar, however, the crisis hasn’t changed anything in terms of love here in Madrid.
34. Amor con amor se paga
Literal Translation: Love with love is paid.
Figurative Translation: Love is rewarded with love.
35. Cuando la pobreza entra por la puerta, el amor salta por la ventana
Literal Translation: When poverty enters through the door, love jumps through the window.
Figurative Translation: When poverty walks through the door, love flies out the window.
36. Sin pan y sin vino, no hay amor fino
Literal Translation: Without bread and without wine there’s not fancy love.
Figurative Translation: Where basic needs aren’t met love won’t abound.
According to the Spanish, without bread and without wine there’s also no meal. Bread and wine—bread more so than wine—are absolute staples at every table for almost every meal. “Man does not live by bread alone” is a proverb that the Spanish might be willing to challenge.
Proverbs About Funny Love
Perhaps the best remedy for getting through the ups and downs of love is a good dose of humor. These Spanish proverbs will give you just that.
37. El amor es ciego, pero los vecinos no
Literal Translation: Love is blind; but the neighbors aren’t.
Figurative Translation: There’s always someone around to gossip about lovers.
This is especially true if you live in a Spanish pueblo (village/town). There is an entire comedy sketch based on the premise of the typical cotilla (gossip) who perches at her window to listen in on the chisme (gossip) in Spanish villages. One of Spain’s most famous comedians, José Mota, plays the character of “la vieja’l visillo” (literally: “the old woman of the lace curtain”) in these hilarious sketches.
38. El amor entra por la cocina
Literal Translation: Love enters through the kitchen.
Figurative Translation: The quickest way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.
39. Desgraciado en el juego, afortunado en el amor
Literal Translation: Unlucky in the game, lucky in love.
Figurative Translation: Unlucky at cards, lucky in love.
If this were actually true I would have been saved a lot of pain in my life.
40. Antes que te cases, mira lo que haces
Literal Translation: Before you marry, look what you are doing.
Figurative Translation: Look before you leap. / Think before you act.
As you may have noticed, there seem to be certain sentiments about love that are universally shared, so many of the Spanish proverbs you have learned also have English equivalents. However, there are also a few proverbs on the list that the English language can’t match.
Thankfully for you, a lot of these Spanish proverbs rhyme which should help you memorize them. Choose your favorites from the list and learn them by heart. I can assure you that in doing so you will enrich your vocabulary and create a vital source of Spanish wisdom for all those deep conversations on love that you will eventually be having with native Spanish speakers.
In fact, native speech exposure will be the key to mastering Spanish proverbs, romantic or otherwise. You don’t want to fumble these sayings in real life, so it’s advised that you see how they’re properly used in different scenarios.
Even if a Spanish person isn’t around, you can still practice with videos that feature realistic Spanish speech, such as those on the language learning program FluentU. You can search for content based on topics (including romance) and with each clip’s interactive subtitles, you can learn the meanings and usage of Spanish vocabulary and phrases in context.
The efforts you put into learning these proverbs will be well worth it. Here’s to life, love and the pursuit of Spanish fluency!
Download:
This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you
can take anywhere.
Click here to get a copy. (Download)
