Dicho español · Spanish proverb

«Al pan, pan y al vino, vino.»

Word for word

To bread, bread, and to wine, wine.

What it really means

The closest English equivalent: Call a spade a spade.

Call things by their name — say it straight, without euphemisms.

Hear it in a sentence

No lo adornes más: el proyecto fracasó. Al pan, pan y al vino, vino.

Stop sugarcoating it — the project failed. Call a spade a spade.

Why learn dichos?

Proverbs like this one are everywhere in spoken Spanish — dropped mid-conversation, usually just the first half, with the rest left for you to complete. Recognizing them is one of the fastest ways to sound less like a textbook and follow real speech. Every Lingocito edition signs off with the dicho del día, so you meet one a day next to news written at your exact level.

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