Echar leña al fuego
/eh-CHAR LEH-nyah al FWEH-go/
To make a bad situation, argument, or problem even worse.
💡 Understanding the Idiom
🎨 Literal vs. Figurative
Literally, this means 'to throw firewood on the fire'.
In practice, it means making an already bad situation even worse.
Key Words in This Idiom:
📝 In Action
La discusión ya era intensa, pero su comentario sarcástico echó más leña al fuego.
B2The argument was already intense, but his sarcastic comment added more fuel to the fire.
No hables de política en la cena familiar; solo vas a echar leña al fuego.
B2Don't talk about politics at the family dinner; you're just going to make things worse.
En lugar de ayudar, el informe del gobierno echó leña al fuego de la protesta.
C1Instead of helping, the government's report fanned the flames of the protest.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom's origin is beautifully simple and visual. It comes from the basic, real-world observation that if you add more wood ('leña') to a fire ('fuego'), it burns bigger, hotter, and more intensely. The expression takes this physical truth and applies it to metaphorical 'fires' like arguments, conflicts, or problems. It's an ancient concept, with similar phrases appearing in the writings of the Roman poet Horace, showing that people have been making bad situations worse for thousands of years!
⭐ Usage Tips
For Worsening, Not Starting
Use this phrase when a negative situation already exists. It's about aggravating a problem, not creating one from scratch. Think of it as turning a small fire into a bonfire.
Use as a Warning or Description
It works perfectly as a warning ('¡No eches más leña al fuego!' — Don't make it worse!) or as a way to describe what happened ('Ella echó leña al fuego con su pregunta' — She made it worse with her question).
❌ Common Pitfalls
Confusing it with 'Starting' a problem
Mistake: "Using 'echar leña al fuego' to describe the beginning of an argument."
Correction: Remember, the 'fire' must already be burning. If you want to say someone *started* a problem, you'd use a different phrase, like 'buscar problemas' (to look for trouble) or 'provocar una discusión' (to provoke an argument).
🌎 Where It's Used
Spain
Extremely common and universally understood in all contexts.
Latin America
Universally understood and very common across all Spanish-speaking countries.
🔗 Related Idioms
✏️ Quick Practice
💡 Quick Quiz: Echar leña al fuego
Question 1 of 1
Your friends are in a small disagreement. If you 'echas leña al fuego', what happens?
🏷️ Tags
Frequently Asked Questions
Is 'echar leña al fuego' always intentional?
Not necessarily. While someone can deliberately 'echar leña al fuego' to cause trouble, it's also very common to use it when someone makes a situation worse by accident, through a thoughtless comment or a clumsy action. The result is the same, even if the intention was different.