When someone is being straightforward we use the phrase “To call a spade a spade”. An equivalent in Spanish is “Llamar las cosas por su nombre”, which literally translates to “To call things by their name”. A more colloquial version is “LLamar al pan pan y al vino vino”, which means “To call bread bread and wine wine”.
One way of describing a scatterbrain is the phrase “To have bats in the belfry”. The equivalent in Spanish is “Tener pajaros en la cabeza” or “Tener la cabeza llena de pajaros”, which mean respectively “To have birds in the head” and “To have the head full of birds”. Note that the Spanish word for “bat” is “murcielago”, which has all five vowels.
In English, we describe a person with a pallid complexion as being “wan” or “pasty-faced”. The equivalent in Spanish is “cara de pan mascado” which literally means “face of chewed bread”.
Here’s an idiom that uses different animals in Spanish and English to describe someone who’s in charge: “Ser el gallito del lugar” literally translates to “To be the little rooster of the place”. The equivalent in English is “To be top dog”.
“No se salvo ni una rata” translates colloquially as “No one escaped”. The literal translation is “Not even a rat was saved”.
Here’s a Spanish idiom which has a nearly identical counterpart in English: “Es solo una sombra de lo que fue” literally translates to “He is only a shadow of what he was”. In English we’d say: “He’s a shadow (shell) of his former self”.
“El ultimo grito” literally means “The last shout”. The colloquial meaning is “The latest craze”.
“Poner toda la carne en el asador” literally translates to “To put all the meat on the spit”. An equivalent in English is “To go whole hog”. Have to wonder whether this saying alludes to putting a whole hog on the spit.
In English, when someone takes more than an equal share of something we employ the saying “To take the lion’s share”. The Spanish equivalent has one taking the lion’s “cut”, as in “Llevarse la tajada del leon”. One can also use the “best cut”: “Llevarse la mejor tajada”.
In English, when we want to describe something that is undecided we might use the phrase “It’s still up in the air” or “The jury’s still out”. In Spanish, one equivalent is “La pelota esta aun en el tejado”, which literally means “The ball is still on the roof”.
