A friend of mine who is a medical doctor says there is something to the hangover remedy of “hair of the dog that bit you”, i.e. “to take a nip in the morning”. The equivalent saying for this remedy is “matar el gusanillo”, which literally means “to kill the little worm”.
“No se oia ni una mosca” literally means “One did not hear even a fly”. The equivalent phrase in English is “You could have heard a pin drop”.
When handwriting is illegible we sometimes describe it as “scrawl” or “chicken scratch”. In Spanish it the term would be “hacer patas de mosca”, which literally means “to make legs of fly”.
When someone is going to pay for something, in English we might say “to cough it up”, “fork it up” or “pay up”. In Spanish, one colloquial equivalent is “sacudir la mosca”, which literally means “to shake the fly”.
“Ojos saltones” literally translates to “bulging eyes”. In English, we’d say “bug-eyed”.
A couple of insect related idioms. “Por si las moscas” literally means “for if the flies”. The colloquial translation is “just in case”. “Mosca muerta” translates to “dead fly” and the idiomatic meaning is “hypocrite”.
“Se podia oir el vuelo de una mosca” literally translates to “One could hear the flight of a fly”. The idiomatic translation in English is “You could have heard a pin drop”. Another insect related idiom is “A perro flaco todo son pulgas” literally means “To a skinny dog it’s all fleas”. The equivalent saying in English is “Misfortunes rain upon the wretched”.
“Ser una hormiga” literally means “To be an ant”. The colloquial meaning is “To be industrious or thrifty”. In English we have the saying “To be as busy as a bee”.
“Estar mosca” means literally “To be fly”. The colloquial meaning is nothing like the American colloquial term. It means “To be suspicious”. Another Spanish idiom involving flies is “Cazar (papar) moscas”. The literal translation is “To hunt flies” and the idiomatic meaning is “To daydream”. Another idiomatic phrase with flies is “Caer como chinches (moscas)” which is “To drop like flies” which is identical.
English: “I have butterflies in my stomach”
Spanish: “Tengo un cosquilleo en el estomago” Literal translation: “I have a tickling sensation in my stomach”
