Dicho español · Spanish proverb
«Ojo por ojo, diente por diente.»
Word for word
Eye for eye, tooth for tooth.
What it really means
The closest English equivalent: An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.
Describes retaliation in kind — usually quoted to criticize a cycle of revenge, not to recommend it.
Hear it in a sentence
Le rayó el coche porque él le rompió el espejo: ojo por ojo, diente por diente.
She scratched his car because he broke her mirror — an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.
More Spanish sayings
- Del árbol caído todos hacen leña. — Everyone kicks a man when he's down.
- Cada oveja con su pareja. — Birds of a feather flock together.
- Ladrón que roba a ladrón tiene cien años de perdón. — Robbing a thief is no crime.
- Una de cal y otra de arena. — Give and take.
- El ojo del amo engorda al caballo. — The master's eye makes the horse fat.
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.