Refranes: más vale tarde que nunca

A refrán is a traditional proverb: a short, fixed sentence with a moral. Spanish speakers use them constantly, and the wording never changes:

• Más vale tarde que nunca. - Better late than never.
• A quien madruga, Dios le ayuda. - The early bird catches the worm. (God helps the one who gets up early)

Spanish refranes at a glance

Eight you will hear in your first month in a Spanish-speaking country:

• bocamouth
• moscafly

They are anonymous, mostly centuries old, and built on rhythm and rhyme so they stick.

Más vale ... que: better ... than

Three of the commonest share one frame: más vale X que Y, X is worth more than Y.

Spanish has a hundred birds where English has two in the bush. And mejor tarde que nunca is also common, beside más vale tarde que nunca:

• Llegas tarde, pero más vale tarde que nunca. - You're late, but better late than never.

The same frame works outside proverbs, as ordinary advice:

• Más vale llamar antes. - It's better to ring first.

Animals and the body

Many refranes are pictures from village life: a dog, a horse, a shut mouth.

• Tu jefe grita mucho, pero perro ladrador, poco mordedor. - Your boss shouts a lot, but his bark is worse than his bite.

Perro ladrador, poco mordedor has no verb at all: the noun perro and two -dor words (ladrador, barking; mordedor, biting), set side by side.