Morning! 😃 ☕️
One word gone today. Your brain already knows what belongs in that gap. Filling it in from memory is the whole exercise. Resist the urge to peek.
In today's email…
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📱 Day 2: the first word disappears
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🌟 The tiger and greyhound versions from other countries
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🏃♂️ A word-mold you can reuse to build your own sayings
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MEMORIZE 🧠
__ tal palo, tal astilla
As always, the answer key and audio are at the bottom of this email.
CULTURAL MOMENT 🍅
Not every saying crosses borders cleanly. This one does. Say "de tal palo, tal astilla" in Spain, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, or Peru and you'll be understood without a blink.
That reach is exactly why it's a smart first phrase to carry, it works almost anywhere Spanish is spoken.
Mexico keeps its own favorite on hand: "hijo de tigre, pintito," son of a tiger, spotted just the same. Same idea, different animal.
You'll hear it most in central Mexico, usually about a kid who inherited a parent's fire or hard-headedness rather than a skill. If a Mexican friend says it about their own child, that's affection dressed up as a complaint.
Over in Spain, the wood version does double duty. Beyond family kitchens, it turns up all the time in newspapers and casual writing, a columnist noting that a politician's son just entered the same field, and every reader catching the small wink underneath.
There it's less a special-occasion line and more an everyday tool for talking about anyone stepping into a parent's shoes.
Move down through South America and you'll meet another cousin: "de casta le viene al galgo," it comes to the greyhound from its breed.
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