In English we often hear the phrase “an apple a day keeps the doctor away”. A variation on this theme is the Spanish saying “estar sano como una manzana”, which literally translates to “to be as healthy as an apple”. An alternative is “estar mas sano que una manzana”.
“No partir peras con nadie” literally translates to “Not to split pears with nobody”. The colloquial translation is “not to be overly friendly with anybody”. In Spanish, pears appear in many idiomatic phrases.
Here’s a saying that rhymes in both English and Spanish: “An apple a day keeps the doctor away”. The Spanish version is “A diario una manzana es cosa sana”, which translates literally to “Daily an apple is a healthy thing”.
Here are some idioms with a common theme involving saints, weather, ethnicity and fruit.
“Veranillo de San Juan” literally means “Little summer of Saint John”. The idiomatic translation is “warm spell in June”. The only similar saying in English that I can think of is “dog days of summer”. “Veranillo de San Martin (San Miguel)” has as its equivalent in English “Indian summer”. Another Spanish version is “veranillo del membrillo”, a “membrillo” being a “quince”.
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”.
We’ll look at a couple of idiomatic expressions in English that use “bone”.
“Bone of contention” has as its Spanish counterpart “Manzana de la discordia” which literally means “Apple of discord”.
When something is very dry we describe it as being “bone dry”. In Spanish one might say something is as dry as a raisin, or “mas seco que una pasa”. Interesting that the Spanish equivalents use fruit.
The only colloquial use of “pumpkin” that I can think of in English is as a term of endearment. In Spanish “calabazas” can be found in very different usages.
“Dar calabazas” which literally translates as “to give pumpkins” means to flunk someone. “Recibir calabazas” which means “To receive pumpkins” can signify either “To flunk” or “To be jilted”.
“No valer un higo” literally means “Not to be worth a fig”. The colloquial translation is “Not to be worth two cents”, although with inflation one also hears “It’s not worth a nickel”. My favorite is “It’s not worth squat”. Figs are not the only thing deemed insignificant. An alternative phrase is “No valer un pepino”. A pepino is a cucumber. One also hears “No me importa un pepino (tres pepinos)” which idiomatically translates to “I couldn’t care less”. This English phrase is troublesome since we also say “I could care less”. Which is it?
