Donde no hay mata, no hay patata

[ROBINDESBOIS]

It means " de donde no hay no se puede sacar" That is used when sb is not very clever, is there an equivalent in English, using potato?

[Perikles]

I don't think there is any similar in English :thinking:

[poli]

Not with potato, but you can say:
"You can't get blood out of a stone"
or , "You can't get a turnip to bleed."

These phrases can be used to mean don't expect something that cannot render to render
examples:don't expect get money from a pauper,
don't expect brilliance from a dummy
etc.

By the way the blood -out-of- a- stone phrase is much more common than the turnip phrase.

[ROBINDESBOIS]

thank you very much.

[poli]

Is the phrase used exclusively to describe someone who isn't clever, or
does it have wider meaning as similar phrases in English do?