learn to walk before you can run
- idiom
- Informal
:
aprender lo básico antes de avanzar
- In programming, it's important to learn to walk before you can run and start with the basics.
Examples
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If you want to become a great musician, you need to learn to walk before you can run.
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It's important to learn to walk before you can run in any new job.
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Our boss told us to learn to walk before we can run and not take on too much too soon.
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You must learn to walk before you can run!
-
If you want to become a great musician, you need to learn to walk before you can run.
-
In programming, it's important to learn to walk before you can run and start with the basics.
-
Our boss told us to learn to walk before we can run and not take on too much too soon.
Synonyms
9
3.4
To begin to understand how to do a job by gaining basic skills
1
5.0
To start with simple tasks before trying harder ones
How Ready
1
5.1
- Informal
8
1.0
1
5.0
38
3.0
Surface Forms
Morphology
learn + to + walk + before + you + can + run
The proverb's meaning is directly and transparently built from its constituents: knowing 'learn', 'walk', 'run' and temporal relation 'before' makes the intended advice (master basics before attempting advanced tasks) easily inferable. This is a common, cross-linguistic pedagogical metaphor, so a B1 learner who knows the individual words will very likely understand the intended meaning without prior exposure.
Etymology
Learn to walk before you can run paints the picture of a child taking small, careful steps (walk) before trying to move fast (run). That's why it means 'learn the basic skills' before trying something 'advanced'.