Al salir el sol
 

Help me understand this. "Al salir el sol" means sunrise. Right? But "salir" means "to leave", right? So where does this phrase come from? It sounds counter-intuitive.

Thanks!

al salir el sol = as the sun rises

El sol se pone (the sun sets) y el sol sale (and it rises). Salir has many meanings, two of which are 'come up' or 'come out'.

Ohhhh!! Okay, that makes a lot of sense! Thanks, Rusty. So, as if it's leaving its place of darkness under the horizon.....

By the way - I swear I didn't see this or know about it until just this minute, but I just saw a song (new song?) by Shakira called "Sale el Sol":

By the way, salir also means "come out"

También se dice que el sol "se levanta", pero el uso de "salir" es como si viniera de dentro de la oscuridad. :)

Lou Ann, do you remember an old conversation we had about venir/salir? ;)

Shakira rocks. I think in this new song "Sale el sol" implies that after the pain of a breakup when you least expect it "Sale el sol" meaning you go from crying and being depressed to feeling optimistic and hopeful again. You finally leave a dark place and find a new beginning.

I guess we say "salir el sol" because it was thought that the earth was flat and the centre of the universe. So, it was thought that it was the sun which went around the earth.

Greetings for Galileo. :D

In English, you can say "the sun has come out" after it has been raining. The rain has stopped, and the sun appears from behind the clouds. Could you use "al salir el sol" also for that context?

@Perikles: Yes.

Estaba muy nublado y creímos que iba a llover, pero hace unos minutos salió el sol y ya no llovió.

Llovió muy fuerte y el cielo estaba muy negro; luego empezó a salir el sol de nuevo.

Thanks :)