Dicho español · Spanish proverb
«La lengua es el azote del cuerpo.»
Word for word
The tongue is the whip of the body.
What it really means
The closest English equivalent: The tongue is the body's scourge.
Used to reflect on how harmful careless words can be to oneself. It warns that your own tongue can cause you more trouble than anything else.
Hear it in a sentence
La lengua es el azote del cuerpo, y por hablar de más perdió a su mejor amigo.
The tongue is the body's scourge, and by talking too much he lost his best friend.
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.