Dicho español · Spanish proverb
«Camarón que se duerme, se lo lleva la corriente.»
Word for word
The shrimp that falls asleep is carried away by the current.
What it really means
The closest English equivalent: You snooze, you lose.
A Latin American favorite: stay alert, because whoever gets complacent loses their spot.
Hear it in a sentence
No revisó los precios de la competencia y perdió a sus clientes: camarón que se duerme, se lo lleva la corriente.
He stopped checking his competitors’ prices and lost his customers — you snooze, you lose.
More Spanish sayings
- Quien fue a Sevilla, perdió su silla. — You snooze, you lose.
- Al freír será el reír. — We'll laugh when we see the results.
- La esperanza es lo último que se pierde. — Hope is the last thing to lose.
- La codicia rompe el saco. — Greed overreaches and loses everything.
- Al que le quede el saco, que se lo ponga. — If the shoe fits, wear it.
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 level.