Re: Spanish to English--gift horse

Posted by R. Berg on December 11, 2001

In Reply to: Re: This was translated from spanish to english posted by Bob on December 10, 2001

: : this was translated from spanish to english in spanish it is:A caballo regalado no se le mira el diente

: :
: : In english it is: To horse given does not look it itself the tooth

: : The problem is that it is supposed to be one of those common english sayings that has a point to it. Please help.

: The proverb in English is "don't look a gift horse in the mouth." You can find a discussion of it in the Search box, but it means, simply, that if you get something for free, you shouldn't examine its value too closely or critically (as you might assess the value of a horse from its teeth.) Be happy it's free.

Anyway, the literal translation doesn't render the Spanish sentence accurately. The meaning is more like "With a gift horse, don't look at its tooth."
no mira = don't look

• Re: Spanish to English--gift horse Barney 12/11/01