Updated on November 4, 2022
10 beautiful Spanish phrases that’ll make you fall in love with the language
Known as the language of love, Spanish sounds effortlessly elegant and charming. With its abundance of melodic sounds and beautifully descriptive phrases, Spanish is a language of romance, love, and passion – no wonder it’s one of the most popular second languages to learn!
Adriana learnt Spanish while studying abroad and living in the small village of Zamora. Speaking Spanish with her host family and getting to know Spanish culture through immersion helped her learn the language very quickly – and she highly recommends learning a foreign language this way. But in case you’re not yet ready to pack your bags and move to Spain, here are 11 of Adriana’s favourite Spanish phrases that’ll have you falling in love and motivate you to start learning.
Here’s a list of my favorite Spanish phrases. As you go through these words, phrases, and quotes, you’ll discover an entirely new meaning of being articulate in Spanish.
Have you ever eaten something incredibly spicy and instantly regretted it? It’s a universally shared experience, yet somehow there’s no single word in the English language to describe this.
In Spanish, however, enchilarse perfectly captures this experience. It’s the feeling of regret when you eat something so spicy it causes your lips to burn. Next time you eat at a Spanish restaurant and decide to eat a dangerous-looking chili, you’ll know exactly what to say afterward!
Anteayer, simply translated as the day before yesterday, is a particularly useful word. There’s no one word in the English language that’s equivalent to it.
When learning a language you’ll often come across words that have no translation in your mother tongue – and Spanish is no exception. But this is what makes language learning fun: the more languages you know, the more you’ll be able to express yourself.
Sunday – a day for casual walks in the park and lazy afternoons. Is there a simple way to express the activities most of us do on Sundays? Probably not in English but in Spanish, you can use “dominguear”. If you’re already familiar with the Spanish words for the days of the week, you’ll notice that it’s similar to “domingo”, which means Sunday.
Possibly one of the cutest Spanish idioms, this literally translates to “to find your half orange”, which in English means “to find your soulmate”.
Imagine two halves of an orange being placed together to form a perfect circle – that’s a symbol of a truly harmonious relationship. So next time your Spanish-speaking friend tells you a beautiful story about their partner, tell them this: “Estoy muy contento de que hayas encontrado a tu media naranja,” which in English means, “I’m really happy because you have found your soul mate.”
This Spanish phrase literally translates to “the world is a handkerchief” and it’s something you say to someone you run into unexpectedly. If you run into a work colleague while you’re on celebrating the holidays in Spain, for example, you can impress them with this phrase. You can also say this when you meet someone and both discover that you have a mutual acquaintance.
We have a similar idiom in English: “It’s a small world.”
This phrase, which literally translates to “to burn one’s eyelashes”, means to read or study a lot. It’s similar to the English idiom, “to burn the midnight oil”.
In the past, people would use candles while studying or reading at night. Sometimes they would get too close to the flame and get burnt. Thankfully using candles for light is a thing of the past, because now you can learn Spanish as much as you want and your eyelashes will be just fine.
The next time you feel proud for accomplishing something after the first attempt, (maybe you said something in Spanish with a perfect accent?) you can say this phrase.
It literally translates to “to arrive and kiss the saint” and possibly originated from the long journeys made by pilgrims to visit a revered saint. On arrival, they would kiss the saint and often feel immense satisfaction and content at having completed this challenging expedition.
Trust me – when you study Spanish long enough, you’ll definitely want to celebrate moments like these!
Spanish quotes inspire, guide, and inform – and it’s a great way to quickly expand your vocabulary and start thinking in a foreign language. Here are some beautiful quotes from some of the world’s most prominent Spanish-speaking personalities.
– Miguel de Cervantes y Saavedra, Spanish writer
Miguel de Cervante y Saavedra, who wrote “Don Quixote” is one of the world’s greatest writers. As he says in the quote, he believes that “the pen is the tongue of the soul”. As you improve your Spanish language skills, start reading short stories and poems written in Spanish – it will help you understand the soul and psyche of the Spanish-speaking people.
– Octavio Paz, Mexican poet and diplomat
Octavio Paz lived through years of political conflict and shared his views and philosophies through countless poems. He said this quote, which translates to “learning to smile is learning to be free” – which got him the Nobel Prize for literature.
Learning Spanish is a great way to expand your knowledge and perspective, as it opens up a whole new culture and world literature for you.
– Che Guevara, Argentine revolutionary
Che Guevara is one of the most prominent personalities of the Cuban Revolution. His words which translate to, “let’s be realistic and do the impossible”, became the slogan and battle cry of his followers and admirers.
As you can see, if you’re looking for the true language of love, Spanish is without a doubt a top contender and totally worth learning!
