Si tocas la sartén caliente, te quemas la mano.

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Breakdown of Si tocas la sartén caliente, te quemas la mano.

• caliente: hot
• si: if
• la mano: the hand

Questions & Answers about Si tocas la sartén caliente, te quemas la mano.

Why is it Si tocas... and not Cuando tocas...?

Both can be possible in some contexts, but they are not exactly the same.

• Si = if
• cuando = when

In this sentence, si introduces a condition:
If you touch the hot frying pan, you burn your hand.

It expresses a general cause-and-effect idea.
Using cuando would sound more like whenever/when you touch it, focusing on the repeated event rather than the condition itself.

So si is the most natural choice for a warning or general rule.

Why are both verbs in the present: tocas and te quemas?

This is a very common Spanish pattern, just like English If you touch it, you burn your hand or If you touch it, you’ll burn your hand.

Spanish often uses the present tense in both parts of the sentence to express:

• general truths
• habits
• predictable results
• warnings

This is often called the zero conditional or a real/general conditional.

So:

• Si tocas... = if you touch...
• te quemas... = you burn / you get burned

Spanish does not need a future tense here.

Why isn’t it or ?