Here are two billiards related words that show up in colloquial speech. “Cometer una pifia” means “to commit a miscue”. The colloquial translation is “to goof up”. “Retaco” can mean “short cue” or “sawed off shotgun”. The slang meaning, when applied to a person, is “shorty”.
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30Jun
Categories: SPEAK Like A Spaniard..., Sports, Weapons Comments: 0
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18Jun
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“Aquí te quiero ver, escopeta” literally translates to “here I want to see you, shotgun”. The colloquial meaning is “”show us what you can do”.
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24May
Categories: SPEAK Like A Spaniard..., Weapons Comments: 0
One way of describing “important people” in Spanish is “gente de fuste”. “Gente” means “people”; and “fuste” is the shaft of a lance.
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05Mar
Categories: SPEAK Like A Spaniard..., Tools, Weapons Comments: 0
We call an outstanding athlete an “ace”. In Spanish he would be an “axe”, as in “hacha”. This can also mean “hatchet”. In English a “hatchet job” has a completely different connotation.
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16Feb
Categories: Religion, SPEAK Like A Spaniard..., Weapons Comments: 0
“A Dios rogando y con el mazo dando” literally translates to “to God praying and with the mallet giving”. The equivalent phrase in English is “God helps those who help themselves”.
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03May
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A soldier who fights to the death is said “to die with his boots on”. The equivalent phrase in Spanish is “morir al pie del cañón”, which literally means “to die at the foot of the cannon”.
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31Mar
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When we’re in a precarious situation we might use the phrase “with a knife at one’s throat”. The Spanish equivalent is “con un puñal en el pecho”, which means “with a dagger in the chest”.
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14Jan
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When we find ourselves in an impossible situation we might say we’re “between a rock and a hard place”. In Spanish, we’d be “entre la espada y la pared”, which means “between the sword and the wall”.
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04Aug
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When someone makes a remark that really “cuts somebody down”, we would call it a “cutting remark” or perhaps “a real zinger”. In Spanish, the equivalent would be “un dardo”, which means “a dart”.
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08Jul
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In Spanish there are many phrases to describe running fast, most of them involving animals. Here’s another one: “correr como una flecha”, which means “to run like an arrow”.