Great British Idioms - Do the Spanish have them - Do they understand or just think we are mad

I've often wondered if the Spanish have thier own Idioms and sayings, you certainly don't get taught them at Spanish lessons. Here is a selection of our best

 

A hot potato

 

A penny for your thoughts

 

An arm and a leg

 

At the drop of a hat

 

Back to the drawing board

 

Ball is in your court

 

Barking up the wrong tree

 

Beat around the bush

 

Best of both worlds

 

Best thing since sliced bread

 

Bite off more than you can chew

 

Blessing in disguise

 

Burn the midnight oil

 

Can't judge a book by its cover

 

Caught between two stools

 

Costs an arm and a leg

 

Cross that bridge when you come to it

 

Cry over spilt milk

 

Curiosity killed the cat

 

Cut the mustard 

 

Don't count your chickens before the eggs have hatched

 

Don't give up the day job

 

Don't put all your eggs in one basket

 

Egg on face

 

Every cloud has a silver lining

 

Feel a bit under the weather

 

Hear it on the grapevine

 

Hit the nail on the head

 

Hit the sack 

 

In the heat of the moment

 

It takes two to tango

 

Jump on the bandwagon

 

Keep something at bay

 

Kill two birds with one stone

 

Last straw

 

Let sleeping dogs lie

 

Let the cat out of the bag

 

Method to my madness

 

Miss the boat

 

Not a spark of decency

 

Not playing with a full deck

 

Off one's rocker

 

On the ball

 

Once in a blue moon

 

Picture paints a thousand words

 

Piece of cake

 

Put wool over other people's eyes

 

See eye to eye

 

Sit on the fence

 

Speak of the devil!

 

Steal someone's thunder

 

Take with a grain of salt

 

Taste of your own medicine

 

To hear something straight from the horse's mouth

 

Wouldn't be caught dead

 

 

 

teamgb

yes the spanish have a lot of idioms and they are just as confusing to Brits as Brit ones are to the Spanish

Here is a good link

http://www.fluentu.com/spanish/blog/spanish-idioms/

Spain has so many I wouldn't know where to start but I found this with 10,000 translated to English!

http://www.geneticcounselingtoolkit.com/pdf_files/Spanish_idioms_with_their_English_equiva.pdf

But there is one particular Spanish Idiom I like and tends to be very true :

Fíate de la agua mansa, que yo me fiaré de la corriente 

it is also referred to in a diffferent manner :

Fíate tú de las aguas mansas, que de las bravas me cuido yo.

But I prefer the first, and is how I have always heard it said. It means:

Calm water often hides troubles and often results in unexpected endings,  but rough water is what it is, you know what you are getting yourself into.

When applied to peoples' characters, it means that those with a quiet and non-descriptive character are the ones you need to worry about, more than those with a strong outgoing character who tend to show what they feel.

An arm and a leg in Spain is 'un huevo' as in 'Me costó un huevo'. I'm just not sure if that is referring to an actual egg or one of your testicles (which are referred to in Spain as eggs not balls).

Thanks Tadd and Ian, I will have a look at them over the weekend.

Fartharder,

"me costó un huevo" is the slang version... and does refer to testicles. It would be appropirate only in certain situations...

the normal version  for 'an arm and a leg' would be :

me costó un ojo de la cara 

"It cost me an eye from my face!" .... so in principle not very different

Of course, every language has it's own idioms. What I find interesting is the origins of them. Often they don't make any sense to a non-native speaker, unless they can be explained somehow. I recently was having a conversation (in Spanish) and translated literally "the straw that broke the camel's back", and got a very strange look! Unfortunately, I have no idea where this expression originates, so it was very difficult to explain. Eventually my friend understood, and said "la gota que colmó el vaso", which simply means the drop of water that made the glass overflow, which is fairly self-explanatory, so that's 1-0 to Spain! 

I just had a quick look at one of the links posted here; very interesting! My eye landed on "echar agua al mar" (throwing water in the sea) which is also pretty self-explanatory...but just doesn't have the same satisfaction value as "pi55ing in the wind", does it? So....1-1 

Once upon a time we actually used the phrase "the last drop makes the cup run over" but I believe that was a very long time ago.

These are great things to learn in Spanish because although we learn the language, we always end up stuck when it comes to using idioms. 

It's funny how Ian states that 'me costó un huevo' is slang and only appropriate in certain situations but this is the only version of this I've ever heard and people appear to use this very often so proper versions and slang versions are equally important to learn. After all, the Spanish use a lot of slang and swear a lot because swearing in Spanish isn't the same as swearing in English. Joder is supposed to be the equivalent of f**k but it's not taken any more seriously here than 'oh gosh' and there's no TV watershed applied to it.

swearing in Spanish isn't the same as swearing in English. Joder is supposed to be the equivalent of

f**k but it's not taken any more seriously here than 'oh gosh' and there's no TV watershed applied to it.

Not only in Spain now either, walk any high street in the UK, go into any shop, you would be suprised how the children use this word these days.

baz

I agree about what you say in the UK high streets etc. but the women are worse than the children and men it is now commonplace

What I meant about swearing and the word joder is that you hear it regularly on daytime TV. It's  not bleeped out or reserved for after 9pm like in the UK. I know it's common in the street all over the world. 

Oh dear! where do you two shop, Poundland? you certainly don't hear this type of language in John Lewis 

What I meant about swearing and the word joder is that you hear it regularly on daytime TV. It's  not bleeped out or reserved for after 9pm like in the UK. I know it's common in the street all over the world. 

Fartharder

There must be some words or phrases that are totaly no go on Spanish TV ?

Team GB how about..."I must pay the tax that's due"...?

Shush acer. you cant say such vulgar thinks on a public forum - I suggest you go and wash your mouth out 

Yes acer, that's unacceptable language AND blasphemy. Other phrases banned from Spanish TV include, 'I think that Spain goal may have been offside', 'Today there will be no ad breaks'  and Tele5 have banned all intelligent conversation on their shows.

Oh dear! where do you two shop, Poundland? you certainly don't hear this type of language in John Lewis 

No thats because the John Lewis I went in was full to the brim with Muslims, if they did say these words you wouldn't understand them anyway, or see the lip movement.

The poundland I live in is full of Poles....Come to think of it I dont understand them either.