Dicho español · Spanish proverb
«Aunque la mona se vista de seda, mona se queda.»
Word for word
Although the monkey dresses in silk, a monkey it remains.
What it really means
The closest English equivalent: You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.
A makeover can’t change what something fundamentally is — said of superficial rebrandings.
Hear it in a sentence
Cambiaron el logotipo, pero el servicio sigue siendo pésimo: aunque la mona se vista de seda, mona se queda.
They changed the logo, but the service is still terrible — you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.
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.