Here are two number based idioms using “cuarto”, which in addition to meaning “room”, also means the fraction ”fourth”. “De tres al cuarto” literally translates to “from three to fourth”. The idiomatic meaning is “third-rate” or “cheap”. “Cuatro cuartos” translates to “four fourths”. The colloquial translation is “very little” or “a pittance”.
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12Jul
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09Jul
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“Solo le importan los cuartos” literally translates to “only the fourths matter to him”. The idiomatic meaning is “he’s only concerned with the small stuff”.
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25Jun
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“Tener décimas” means “to have tenths”. The phrase refers to tenths of a degree (celsius). The colloquial meaning is “to have a slight fever”.
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23Jun
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“Darle siete vueltas a la lengua antes de hablar” translates to “to give the tongue seven turns before speaking”. The given equivalent phrase in English is “to mind one’s Ps and Qs”.
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15Jun
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“Cantarle a alguien las cuarenta” literally translates to “to sing the forty to someone”. The idiomatic meaning is “to give someone a piece of your mind” or “to tell someone off”.
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25Mar
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“Hacer un número” means simply “to do a number”. The colloquial sense is “to do something outrageous”. This is similar to the English version of “to do a number on someone”.
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22Feb
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Here are two number related phrases using “tres” or “three”. “En un dos por tres” means “in a two by three”. The colloquial translation is “in a jiffy” or “in a flash”. “No hay dos sin tres” literally translates to “there is no two without three”. The equivalent phrase in English would be “misfortunes always come in threes”. But what about the saying “third time is a charm”?
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06Jun
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In English, when we want to give someone a piece of our mind, we say we’re going “to tell someone a thing or two”. In Spanish the right number is four, as in “decirlo a uno cuatro cosas”.
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16May
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When there’s an unexpected guest for a meal we say “there’s always enough for one more”. In Spanish the equivalent phrase is “donde comen dos comen tres”, which means “where two eat three eat”.
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24Mar
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“El martes, ni te cases ni te embarques” literally translates to “Tuesday, neither marry nor embark (on a trip)”. Note that Tuesday is a bad luck day. The Spanish equivalent of Friday the thirteenth is “martes el trece”, which is “Tuesday the thirteenth”.