Morning! 😃 ☕️
There's a phrase Spanish-speaking grandmothers have said for generations, usually right after watching someone get burned for being too generous.
It's short. It's blunt. And once you know it, you'll hear it everywhere, in family arguments, in office gossip, in telenovelas.
In today's email…
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📱 Day 1: The full phrase, no blanks yet
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🌟 Where this saying actually comes from
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🏃 A warning you can use out loud this week
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MEMORIZE 🧠
Cría cuervos y te sacarán los ojos.
As always, the answer key and audio are at the bottom of this email.
CULTURAL MOMENT 🍅
"Cría cuervos y te sacarán los ojos" translates literally to "raise ravens and they'll peck out your eyes." It's the Spanish version of "no good deed goes unpunished," but sharper.
It's not a gentle observation, it's a warning, and Spanish speakers use it that way.
You'll hear this in a very specific moment: someone helped a friend, a coworker, or a family member, and that person turned around and did them wrong.
Maybe they lied about them. Maybe they took credit for their work. Maybe they just disappeared once they didn't need the help anymore.
When that happens, someone in the room, usually an older relative says it. Sometimes they only say half of it: "Cría cuervos..." and let the sentence trail off, because everyone already knows how it ends.
This is the kind of phrase that gives away how long you've actually spent around Spanish speakers.
Textbooks don't teach it. Apps don't teach it. But say it correctly, at the right moment, and people will look at you differently. like you've been paying attention to more than just verb conjugations.
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