“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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22Apr
Categories: Fruit, Religion, SPEAK Like A Spaniard... Comments: 0
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21Apr
Categories: SPEAK Like A Spaniard... Comments: 0
When we want someone to stop and calm down we say “hold your horses”. In Spanish you’d use the other half of this transportation equation: “¡para el carro!”, which means “stop the cart!”.
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20Apr
Categories: Astronomy, SPEAK Like A Spaniard... Comments: 0
In English we describe steep prices as “sky high”. Here are two Spanish equivalents. “Precios astronómicos” means “astronomical prices”. “Están por las nubes” translates to
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19Apr
Categories: SPEAK Like A Spaniard..., Weather Comments: 0
“Caer de las nubes” translates to “to fall from the clouds”. The idiomatic meaning is “to wake up”.
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16Apr
Categories: Food, SPEAK Like A Spaniard... Comments: 0
“Salió echando leches” is a slang phrase used to describe a rapid exit. The literal meaning is “he left spewing milks”.
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15Apr
Categories: Animals, SPEAK Like A Spaniard... Comments: 0
If a project fails or falls through, the Spanish might use the phrase “irse al cuerno”. The translation is “to go to the horn”, as in the horn of a bull.
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14Apr
Categories: Anatomy, SPEAK Like A Spaniard... Comments: 0
“No hay ni para una muela” literally translates to “there isn’t even for a molar”. The idiomatic meaning is “there is not enough to feed a sparrow”.
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13Apr
Categories: SPEAK Like A Spaniard... Comments: 0
Here’s a description of a woman that I read recently in Ruiz Zafón’s “El Juego Del Angel”: “una belleza de infarto”. The literal translation is “a beauty of heart attack”. I guess we’d call her “drop-dead gorgeous”.
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12Apr
Categories: SPEAK Like A Spaniard... Comments: 0
“El que no llora, no mama” literally means “the one who doesn’t cry, doesn’t suckle”. A given equivalent in English is “he who doesn’t ask, doesn’t get”. I prefer the more colloquial phrase “the squeaky wheel gets the grease”.
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09Apr
Categories: SPEAK Like A Spaniard... Comments: 0
Here are some idiomatic phrases using “leña”, which means “firewood”. “Deja de dar leña al mono” literally translates to “stop hitting the monkey with firewood”. The equivalent phrase in English involves another animal: “stop beating a dead horse”. “Dar leña” means “to play rough”. “Llevar leña al monte” translates to “to carry firewood to the hill”. The corresponding phrase in English is “to carry coals to Newcastle” (a bit archaic but still heard). “Añadir (echar) (poner) leña al fuego” means “to add firewood to the fire”, which we know as “to add fuel to the fire”.