We’ve all had the experience of staying at a terrible hotel. In English we would describe it as a “flea bag hotel”. In Spanish the equivalent is a “hotel of bad death” or “hotel de mala muerte”.
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28Sep
Categories: Uncategorized Comments: 0
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27Sep
Categories: Anatomy Comments: 0
When we want someone to shut up, in English we say “Button your lip”. In Spanish they go a little farther, as in “Cosete la boca” which literally means “Sew up your mouth”.
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26Sep
Categories: Religion Comments: 0
When we have to go somewhere at high speed, in English we might say that we have “to hoof it”. In Spanish one might say “ir en el coche de San Fernando” which literally translates to “to go in Saint Fernando’s carriage”.
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25Sep
Categories: Metals/Minerals Comments: 0
“Ser un plomo” literally means “To be lead”. The colloquial meaning is “To be a bore, a pest or a drag”. This is reminiscent of the saying in English about jokes, “It went over like a lead balloon”.
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24Sep
Categories: Professions/Trades Comments: 0
Let’s lok at a couple of pejorative terms for two professions. In English an incompetent or fraudulent doctor is known a s a “quack”. In Spanish, the term is “curandero”. A lawyer who engages in questionable or unethical professional behavior is a “shyster”. A lawyer who improperly looks for cases is an “ambulance chaser”. The closest equivalent in Spanish is a “picapleitos” from “picar” which means to “poke” or “stir” and “pleitos” which means “lawsuits”.
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21Sep
Categories: Clothing Comments: 0
When we’re really tired, in English we say we’re “beat” or “worn out”. In Spanish one might say “estar molido”, which literally means “to be ground down”. When you go to the supermarket you might notice that “ground coffee” is “cafe molido”. My Spanish brother-in-law has another saying for being very tired, “Estoy hecho una braga”, the literal translation of which is “I’m made a panty”.
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20Sep
Categories: Food Comments: 0
In Spanish, to describe something as being really easy, one might hear “Mas facil que beber un vaso de agua”. This literally means “Easier than drinking a glass of water. Equivalent sayings in English are “As easy as falling off a log” or “As easy as pie”.
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19Sep
Categories: Fruit Comments: 0
Spanish has many sayings and idioms involving fruit. Here are two:
“Pedirle peras al olmo” literally translates to “To ask the elm tree for pears”. Not surprisingly, the colloquial meaning is “To ask for the impossible”.
“Estar de mala uva” literally means “To be of bad grape”. The idiomatic translation is “To be in a bad mood”.
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18Sep
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In English, when we want to hide something dirty from others we use the saying “To sweep something under the rug (carpet)”. The equivalent saying in Spanish is “Correr un velo sobre algo”, which means “To run a veil over something”.
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14Sep
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“Estar mas sordo que una tapia” literally translates to “To be more deaf than a fence”. The equivalent in English is perhaps a bit more economical” “To be as deaf as a post”.