Dicho español · Spanish proverb
«El que mucho abarca, poco aprieta.»
Word for word
He who grasps much, squeezes little.
What it really means
The closest English equivalent: Don’t bite off more than you can chew.
Said of someone taking on too many things at once and doing none of them well.
Hear it in a sentence
Se apuntó a cinco cursos a la vez y no terminó ninguno: el que mucho abarca, poco aprieta.
He signed up for five courses at once and finished none — don’t bite off more than you can chew.
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.