“Vamos de culo” literally translates to “we’re going of butt”. Awkward translation, but the colloquial meaning is “things are going very badly for us”.
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23Jul
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27Mar
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When we wish to emphasize that someone is only human we say that “to be of flesh and blood”. The Spanish equivalent is a bit different: “ser de carne y hueso”. The translation is “to be of flesh and bone”.
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20Mar
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Here are two idioms using “cuello”, which means “neck”. “Me juego el cuello a que …” literally translates to “I’d bet my neck that …”. An equivalent phrase in English is “I’d bet anything that …”. The other phrase is “meter el cuello” which means “to stick the neck in”. The colloquial equivalent in English is “to put one’s nose to the grindstone”.
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13Dec
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When we are sad we are said to have a “heavy heart”. In Spanish the equivalent phrase is a bit more graphic: “tener un clavo en el corazòn”. This translates to “to have a nail in the heart”.
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26Oct
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When someone forces himself not to speak his mind, we say “to bite one’s tongue”. In Spanish the bite come in a different place. The Spanish phrase for Speaking one’s mind is “no morderse los labios”, which means “not to bite one’s lips”.
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25Oct
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In English, a bothersome person is called a “pain in the neck”. In Spanish, he’d be a “verruga”, which means “wart”.
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24Oct
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When someone is uttering nonsense we sometimes use the phrase “to talk through one’s hat”. A similar phrase in Spanish is “pensar con los pies”. The literal translation is “to think with the feet”.
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27Sep
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“No valer un cuerno” literally translates to “to not be worth a horn” (as in horn of a bull). An equivalent idiomatic phrase in US English is “it’s not worth a nickel”.
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12Jul
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“Jugarse la cabeza” means “to bet one’s head”. An all or nothing bet in English involves “betting one’s life” or “betting the farm”.
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29Jul
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When something escapes us, such as an opportunity that was well in hand, we might use the phrase “to slip through one’s fingers”. In Spanish, it would slip from the hand, as in “írsele a uno por la mano”.