“Estar en la higuera” literally translates to “to be in the fig tree”. The colloquial meaning is “to be in the clouds” or perhaps “to be out to lunch”.
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27Feb
Categories: Fruit, SPEAK Like A Spaniard... Comments: 0
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10Jun
Categories: Fruit, SPEAK Like A Spaniard... Comments: 0
A way of saying “to land a punch” in Spanish is “arrear una castaña”. The literal translation is “to deal a chestnut”.
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05May
Categories: Fruit, SPEAK Like A Spaniard... Comments: 0
“Tomar el olivo” translates to “to take to the olive tree”. This phrase is used when a bullfighter takes shelter behind the barrier. An idiomatic equivalent in English is “to take to one’s heels”.
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22Apr
Categories: Fruit, Religion, SPEAK Like A Spaniard... Comments: 0
“Ser la pera” means “to be the pear”. Surprisingly, the idiomatic connotation is a pejorative “to be over the top”. Another similar phrase es “ser la hostia”. An “hostia” is a communion wafer.
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20Jul
Categories: Animals, Fruit, SPEAK Like A Spaniard... Comments: 0
“Pesado” is a word heard frequently in Spain. It literally means “heavy”, but is used colloquially to describe someone who is a “drag” or a “nag” or “tedious”. Here are two idioms employing “pesado”: “mas pesado que una vaca en brazos” and “mas pesado que un collar de melones”. The first translates to “heavier than a cow in arms”, the second “heavier than a necklace of melons”.
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11Jun
Categories: Fruit, SPEAK Like A Spaniard... Comments: 0
In English we describe something really dry as “dry as a bone”. The Spanish equivalent is “mas seco que un higo”, which means “drier than a fig”.
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02Dec
Categories: Fruit, SPEAK Like A Spaniard... Comments: 0
When we’re feeling well (or good), we might say we’re “fit as a fiddle” or “healthy as a horse” or “sound as a bell”. The equivalent in Spanish is “mas sano que una manzana”, which means “healthier than an apple”.
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27Oct
Categories: Fruit, SPEAK Like A Spaniard..., Vegetable Comments: 0
Today’s idiom I have put under the categories of both fruit and vegetable. “Mas rojo que un tomate” means “redder than a tomato”. The colloquial meaning relates to embarassment rather than sunburn, for which there are other terms that will be posted.
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08Sep
Categories: Fruit Comments: 0
When someone acts the role of a “spoiler”, we would call him a “rotten egg”. The equivalent in Spanish is a “rotten apple”, as in “manzana podrida”. This brings to mind the saying “a rotten apple spoils the barrel”.
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11Jul
Categories: Fruit Comments: 0
In English we often hear the phrase “an apple a day keeps the doctor away”. A variation on this theme is the Spanish saying “estar sano como una manzana”, which literally translates to “to be as healthy as an apple”. An alternative is “estar mas sano que una manzana”.