I've never heard anybody say that. I don't speak Spanish, but I imagine it to be similar to other Latin languages. I find Latin languages to be flowing and melodious. They have more capacity for rhyme than English because they have true tenses. English only has two true tenses (present and past) so its verbs don't conjugate much and this reduces its capacity to rhyme. The conditional and subjunctive tenses of Latin languages create a capacity for nuance that English does not express in the same way. However, English has its advantages. It has a huge vocabulary due to the Norman invasion, so there are more choices available to find exactly the word you want. The modal verbs provide a fantastic capacity to say things in subtle ways. The present participles give expressive power beyond what they have in, say Italian. While lacking the smoothness and harmony of Latin languages, English makes up for it with fantastic rhythms that arise from strongly accented syllables.

I'm a US native English speaker, intermediate in Spanish. I don't think it's true, I think it's just linguistic pride. I think English _is_ richer in synonyms than Spanish, because our vocabulary is drawn from two sources: one, Latin, is the same as Spanish, but the other, old English, is different. We have two vocabularies in one. As a result, we have many pairs of synonyms: an everyday, core vocabulary word from Old English and an advanced word from Latin. The Old English word is usually short, often a single syllable, while the Latin word is usually longer. Belly and abdomen Brain and cerebrum Speed and velocity Sailor and mariner Glassy and vitreous Bloody and sanguinary Greasy and oleaginous Oil and petroleum It may be true that because we have more vowels (about 20 for English and 5 for Spanish), and because we allow consonant clusters ("strength", for example--eight letters and a single vowel), that we have more single-syllable words. To the English-speaker's ear, short words sound "punchier," strong, and more direct. That might be interpreted as "colorful." Compare "The ship fought the storm and the high waves for hours, and arrived safe in port" with "El barco luchó durante horas contra la tormenta y el fuerte oleaje y llegó sano y salvo a puerto." 17 syllables versus 33. English is an ugly language for singing, though. Spanish (and Italian!) are better for singing because of the wide, clear, open, beautiful vowel sounds, while English is full of muddy, closed, in-between vowel sounds that don't sing well.