see the forest for the trees

Meaning: (idiomatic,chiefly in the negative)To discern an overall pattern from a mass of detail; to see thebig picture, or the broader, more general situation.Smith is good at detail, but can'tsee the forest for the trees.1902, Emily Constance Baird Cook,Highways and Byways in London:It is, indeed, the principal drawback to the study of London that she is too vast—that the student is ever in danger of "notseeing the forest for the trees."1916, Albert Einstein (tr. Robert W. Lawson), “Preface”, inRelativity: The Special and General Theory:On the other hand, I have purposely treated the empirical physical foundations of the theory in a "step-motherly" fashion, so that readers unfamiliar with physics may not feel like the wanderer who was unable tosee the forest for the trees.1919, Louis Tracy,The Strange Case of Mortimer Fenley, page96:Your only failing is that you can'tsee the forest for the trees.

Examples:

EN: I haven't been able to see the forest for the trees.
ES: He sido incapaz de ver el bosque por culpa de los árboles.
EN: How will they see the forest for the trees?
ES: No podrán ver el árbol por el bosque.
EN: Can't see the forest for the trees.
ES: Los árboles no me dejan ver el bosque.
EN: Can't see the forest for the trees .
ES: Ojalá que el árbol no esconda al bosque.
EN: We can't see the forest for the trees.
ES: No vemos el bosque por los árboles.
ES: No podemos ver el bosque con sólo mirar un árbol.
EN: Sometimes we have problems... and we can't see the forest for the trees.
ES: A veces, tenemos un problema y solamente vemos el problema, no vemos nada más.
EN: ; yes, because there are many who cant see the forest for the trees speaking of trees; Sofia von Stauben belonged to the Prussian branch of the von Staubens, and it was she who commissioned Mastropiero... to pen the ballad "To the Beach with Wendy," which he was getting ready to compose that time he thought he saw the form of a strange animal swaying in the window of the study and he went and called the butler.
ES: ; sí, porque hay muchos que se van por las ramas hablando de ramas; Sofía von Stauben pertenecía a la rama prusiana de los von Stauben, y ella fue la que le encomendó a Mastropiero la balada "A la playa con Mariana", que se disponía a componer esa vez que le pareció ver la silueta de un extraño animal meneándose en la ventana del estudio y fue y lo llamó al mayordomo.
EN: You know, Elaine very often we cannot see the forest for the trees.
ES: Sabes, Elaine varias veces no podemos ver el bosque desde los árboles.
EN: I guess I can't see the forest for the trees.
ES: Creo que no puedo ver el bosque por los árboles.
EN: She has me so on edge I haven't been able to see the forest for the trees.
ES: - Me tiene tan tenso que no lo vi.
EN: Good, bad or indifferent, it had become a film of... ..such caricature and notoriety that I don't think anybody could see the forest for the trees.
ES: Bueno, malo o indiferente el filme tuvo tanta notoriedad que los árboles no dejaron ver el bosque.
EN: Maybe Therefore, it could not ... see the forest for the trees.
ES: Tal vez tanto, que no conseguía... ver el bosque por los árboles.
EN: You want it too bad, Sam. You can't see the forest for the trees.
ES: Lo querías demasiado Sam.
EN: "May you always see the forest for the trees." Enjoy.
ES: "Que el bosque no les impida ver el árbol." Que se diviertan.
EN: "May you always see the forest for the trees."
ES: "Que el bosque no les impida ver el árbol."

Note: the examples for non latin scripts have a high likelihood of mistakes, we do not own any of this data and it is sourced from Wiktionary, the NLLB database and Opensubtitles. Please help us improve this by contributing correct examples. We will be working to fix this issue over time however it is a bigger issue due to the the difficulties in dealing with non latin scripts and grammatical structures(non-romantic/european languages have lower resources as well ).