Spanish Similes: dormir como un tronco, terco como una mula

Spanish often swaps a plain adjective for a fixed comparison, and the noun in it never changes:

• Anoche dormí como un tronco. - I slept like a log last night.
• Es terco como una mula. - He's as stubborn as a mule.

Spanish similes at a glance

The ones you will hear most. Learn each as one unit, verb included:

• troncolog, sleep like a log
• tomatetomato, red as a beetroot
• panbread, good as gold

How informal are they? Most belong to conversation:

Como similes: the noun is fixed

Half the similes are an adjective or a verb plus como and a noun. The noun is welded on: swap it and the phrase stops being Spanish.

A few similes have one accepted variant, fixed in its turn: dormir como un lirón (like a dormouse, which hibernates) means much the same as como un tronco, with a hint of sleeping long.

The adjective still agrees with the person; the noun stays exactly as it is:

• Mi padre es terco como una mula. - My father is as stubborn as a mule.
• Mi madre es terca como una mula. - My mother is as stubborn as a mule.
• Mi abuela está sorda como una tapia. - My grandmother is as deaf as a post.

Animals in Spanish similes

Most animal similes come from village life: the mule that refuses to move, the bull's strength, the goat that climbs where it should not.

• mulamule
• torobull
• cabragoat
• tortugatortoise

The lima in comer como una lima is not the fruit but a file, which wears away whatever it touches:

• Mi hermano come como una lima. - My brother eats like a horse.
• Ese chico está como una cabra. - That boy is completely mad.

Más ... que similes

The other half are comparisons: más + adjective + que + a fixed noun. Literally "more X than the bread":

The adjective agrees here too:

• Mi vecina es más buena que el pan. - My neighbour is as good as gold.
• Está más claro que el agua. - It's crystal clear.

Learn the frame with the noun. The usual form is más bueno que el pan, with más and que; fuerte como un toro is usually said with como, though más fuerte que un toro is heard too.

Ser, estar or ponerse

Each simile keeps the verb its adjective takes: ser for character, estar for a state, ponerse for a sudden change.

Where the images come from

Some similes lean on stories every Spanish speaker knows:

Others simply paint a picture. A flan, the wobbly set custard, shakes at a touch, so temblar como un flan is to shake with nerves. A tapia is an old wall of packed earth: about as attentive as a deaf ear.

• Antes del examen temblaba como un flan. - Before the exam I was shaking like a leaf.

Mistakes English speakers make

What to do next

1. Learn five similes as whole units, verb included: dormir como un tronco, estar como una cabra.
2. Do the story and the spot-the-error below.
3. Then refranes, the proverbs every Spanish speaker can finish for you.