Dicho español · Spanish proverb
«El que no llora, no mama.»
Word for word
He who does not cry does not nurse.
What it really means
The closest English equivalent: The squeaky wheel gets the grease.
If you don’t speak up and ask, you get nothing — used to nudge someone into requesting what they want.
Hear it in a sentence
Pidió el aumento directamente y se lo dieron: el que no llora, no mama.
She asked for the raise outright and got it — the squeaky wheel gets the grease.
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.