Spanish Idiom July 17 2008

Soup “sopa” appears in several Spanish idioms and sayings.  “Esta hasta en la sopa” literally translates to “he’s even in the soup”. The idiomatic translation would be “there’s no getting away from him”.

Spanish Idiom June 9, 2008

A couple of “ham” (jamon) related idioms. “Ser una mujer jamon” literally means “to be a woman ham”. The colloquial translation would be “to be a knockout”.  When someone says something preposterous we might respond by saying “no way” or “not on your life”. In Spanish one would say “!Y un jamon!”, or “and a ham”.

Spanish Idiom February 15, 2008

“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.

Spanish Idioms February 5, 2008

When someone is talking nonsense, a polite phrase in English would be “To talk a lot of baloney”. An equivalent in Spanish is “Venir con musicas”, which literally means “To come with musics”.

Spanish Idiom January 8, 2007

“Llegar y besar el santo” literally means “To arrive and kiss the saint”.  Some equivalent colloquialisms in English are: “As easy as pie”; “a piece of cake”; and “like taking candy from a baby”.  Interesting that the versions in English are food related.

Spanish Idiom December 11, 2007

Here’s an idiom that combines food and flower: “La flor y la nata” literally means “The flower and the cream”. The idiomatic equivalents in English are: “The pick of the bunch” or “the pick of the litter”.  In colloquial English we also use the French “creme de la creme”, which is closer to the Spanish phrase.

Spanish Idiom December 6, 2007

“No esta el horno para bollos” literally translates to “The oven is not (ready) for rolls”. The colloquial meaning is “The time is not right”.  “Entre col y col lechuga” literally means “Between cabbage and cabbage lettuce”. The idiomatic translation is “A change is as good as a rest”.

Spanish Idiom November 8, 2007

A couple of idioms employing “miaja”, which means “crumb”.

“Esperate una miaja” literally translates to “Wait a crumb”. Equivalents in English: “Hold on a sec”; “Hang on a bit”; “Hold your horses”.

“No tiene una miaja de inteligencia” means “he doesn’t have a crumb of intelligence”. In English we’d say “He doesn’t have a scrap (shred) of intelligence”.

Spanish Idiom October 15, 2007

In Spain people drink a lot of coffee. Here are two coffe related sayings. “Estar de mal cafe” literally translates to “To be of bad coffee”. The colloquial meaning is “To be in a bad mood”. “Tener mal cafe” means “To have bad coffee”, and the idiomatic equivalent is “To be a nasty piece of work”.

Spanish Idiom October 11, 2007

There a few Spanish idioms involving “papilla”, which means “pap” (as in soft food for infants).

“Echar la primera papilla” literally translates to “To hurl the first pap”. The colloquial tarnslation is “To be sick as a dog” or “To be violently ill”. My preference would be an equally collquial expression “To toss my cookies”.

“Hacer papilla a uno”, or “To make pap out of someone” can be idiomatically translated as “To make mince meat out of someone”.

“Estar hecho papilla” means “To be made pap”. The colloquial equivalent is “To be beat or exhausted”.