Buscar una aguja en un pajar
/boos-KAR OO-nah ah-GOO-hah en oon pa-HAR/
To attempt something that is impossible or extremely difficult because the chances of success are incredibly small, especially when searching for something.
💡 Understanding the Idiom
🎨 Literal vs. Figurative
Literally, this means 'to look for a needle in a haystack'.
It describes any task that feels impossible, like finding one person in a massive crowd.
Key Words in This Idiom:
📝 In Action
Encontrar mis llaves en esta playa tan grande es como buscar una aguja en un pajar.
B1Finding my keys on this huge beach is like looking for a needle in a haystack.
Intentar encontrar a esa persona en la ciudad sin saber su dirección es buscar una aguja en un pajar.
B2Trying to find that person in the city without knowing their address is like looking for a needle in a haystack.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom is a 'calque,' which is a fancy word for a direct, word-for-word loan from another language. It's believed to have entered many European languages, including Spanish and English, from a Latin phrase used by Saint Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century. The image of a tiny, sharp needle lost in a huge, soft pile of hay is so powerful and universal that it has stuck around for centuries.
⭐ Usage Tips
Highlighting Impossibility
Use this phrase to emphasize that a task is not just difficult, but almost impossible due to the overwhelming scale of the search area compared to the tiny size of the object you're looking for.
❌ Common Pitfalls
Not Just Any Difficult Task
Mistake: "Using it for a task that is just hard but not related to searching for something small in a large area."
Correction: The idiom works best when the difficulty comes from searching for something specific in a vast, chaotic, or undifferentiated space. For general difficulty, you might say 'es muy difícil' or 'cuesta mucho'.
🌎 Where It's Used
Global
This is a universal idiom, understood and used in virtually all Spanish-speaking countries, largely because it's a direct equivalent of the English phrase and has roots in Latin.
🔗 Related Idioms
✏️ Quick Practice
💡 Quick Quiz: Buscar una aguja en un pajar
Question 1 of 1
What kind of task does 'buscar una aguja en un pajar' describe?
🏷️ Tags
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there a difference between the Spanish and English versions?
No, 'buscar una aguja en un pajar' and 'to look for a needle in a haystack' are perfect equivalents. They mean the same thing and are used in the exact same contexts, making this one of the easiest idioms for English speakers to learn.