50 idioms in Spanish

To be like a goat → To be a bit mad, to behave in a completely crazy way. Used among friends, almost always with humour and no real offence.

In English: To be off one's rocker

To look for three feet on the cat → To complicate what is simple, to look for problems where there are none. It usually comes as advice: stop making difficulties.

In English: To split hairs

There's a cat shut in here → There is something hidden or suspicious about this story. Used when the explanation you were given does not add up.

In English: There's something fishy going on

To be a hen → To be a coward, to lack the nerve to face something. Note the false friend: in Spanish it carries none of the other senses «hen» has elsewhere.

In English: To be a chicken

To not see three on a donkey → To have terrible eyesight, usually because you are without your glasses. It is an exaggerated, good-humoured way of talking about your own vision.

In English: To be blind as a bat

To be at the age of the turkey → To be in that silly stretch of adolescence, roughly twelve to fifteen, full of giggling and mood swings.

In English: To be at that awkward age

To mount a chicken → To cause a public scene, to kick up a fuss. It is very common in Spain; in Latin America you hear «hacer un escándalo» more often.

In English: To make a scene

To be eaten bread → To be very easy, to take no effort at all. It works for exams, chores and any challenge you get through in no time.

In English: To be a piece of cake

To matter a cucumber → To not care in the slightest about something. Note the false friend: here «importar» means «to matter», not «to import».

In English: To not give a damn

To be of bad milk → To be in a foul mood. Swapping the verb changes everything: «tener mala leche» means having a nasty streak or, in some contexts, appalling luck.

In English: To be in a foul mood

To give pumpkins → To reject someone who has declared their feelings, or to end a relationship. It also appears in the sense of failing a student, but the romantic use is the common one.

In English: To turn someone down

To flip the omelette over → To reverse a situation that looked lost, or to twist the facts so you come out on top. In Spain a «tortilla» is a potato omelette, not the Mexican flatbread.

In English: To turn the tables

To send someone to fry asparagus → To dismiss someone curtly, to send them packing for good. It is the funniest and least coarse way of telling someone to clear off.

In English: To tell someone to get lost

To put one's boots on → To eat a great deal and very well, or to do very nicely out of a situation. It has nothing to do with actual footwear.

In English: To stuff oneself

To not have hairs on one's tongue → To say what you think without beating about the bush, even when the truth stings. It is nearly always meant as praise for someone's frankness.

In English: To not mince words

To take the hair → To wind someone up, to make up a story purely for fun. It is teasing, not fraud: for genuine deception you say «engañar» or «timar».

In English: To pull someone's leg

To be up to the nostrils → To have had enough, to be unable to stand a person or a situation any longer. It nearly always comes followed by «de» and the reason.

In English: To be fed up to the back teeth

To put the paw in → To make a blunder, to say or do the wrong thing without meaning to. It is a slip from carelessness, never from malice.

In English: To put one's foot in it

To not get foot to ball → To get everything wrong, to not manage a single thing right. It works for a bad day at work and for someone getting every answer wrong in class.

In English: To not get anything right

To have a left hand → To be skilled with people and to handle delicate situations diplomatically. It is praise, never criticism.

In English: To have a way with people

To be in the clouds → To be distracted, lost in thought, paying no attention to what is going on around you.

In English: To have one's head in the clouds

To rain by the pitcher → To rain very hard, the sort that floods the street. It is the most common way of talking about a downpour in Spanish.

In English: To rain cats and dogs

To make one's August → To profit hugely from a short window, sometimes off the back of other people's need. It has nothing to do with the month itself.

In English: To make a killing

From figs to early figs → Very occasionally, rarely. Used for things that happen once or twice a year at most.

In English: Once in a blue moon

At a good hour, green sleeves → Said ironically when help or a solution arrives far too late to be any use. It is widely used in Spain.

In English: A day late and a dollar short

To be from the year of the pear → To be ancient, thoroughly out of fashion. It works for gadgets, clothes and for jokes everyone has heard too often.

In English: To be as old as the hills

To cost a kidney → To be extremely expensive, to carry an absurd price. There is also «costar un ojo de la cara», but the kidney version sounds stronger.

In English: To cost an arm and a leg

To be without a white one → To be completely out of money, skint. It is typical of Spain; in Latin America you hear «estar sin un peso» more often.

In English: To be flat broke

To put one's batteries in → To make a real effort, to wake up and get moving. Here it is the person themselves reacting, not somebody egging them on.

In English: To pull one's socks up

To throw the house out of the window → To spend without holding back on a memorable celebration. It is not «throwing money out of the window»: there is no foolish waste here, but deliberate generosity.

In English: To push the boat out

To be lined → To be rolling in money, to be very rich. It also appears in the fuller form «estar forrado de dinero».

In English: To be loaded

To have a plug socket → To land a job or an advantage through connections rather than merit. Anyone who gets in that way is called an «enchufado».

In English: To have friends in high places

To fall fat → To come across as unlikeable, to be unbearable to somebody. The one who «cae gordo» is the person disliked, not the one doing the disliking.

In English: To rub someone the wrong way

To be made into dust → To be exhausted or devastated, physically or emotionally. It works after the gym and after a break-up alike.

In English: To be shattered

To take off the door hinge → To drive someone mad, to irritate them to the limit. There is also «estar fuera de quicio», for someone who has already lost control entirely.

In English: To drive someone up the wall

To eat one's own coconut → To keep chewing over a matter and inventing problems in your head. In Spanish slang «coco» means head.

In English: To overthink

To cry like a Magdalene → To cry without being able to stop. It is used above all for tears of emotion, from a film or from heartbreak.

In English: To cry one's eyes out

To be left made of stone → To be utterly shocked, with no reaction at all. It works for unexpected news, good or bad.

In English: To be gobsmacked

To be at the fifth pine tree → To be miles away, out in the sticks. It is the most common way of complaining about distance in Spain.

In English: To be in the middle of nowhere

To go off along the branches → To ramble, to talk about everything except the point. It usually comes with the request «ve al grano», meaning get to the point.

In English: To beat about the bush

To give a standing → To leave someone waiting and simply not show up. A dangerous false friend: it has nothing to do with a work shift.

In English: To stand someone up

To throw a grey hair to the wind → To break the routine and enjoy yourself, especially when you are no longer so young. Depending on context it can hint at a romantic fling.

In English: To let one's hair down

To strike the nail → To get it exactly right, to find the solution or say the right thing at the right moment. Used to praise a hunch or a diagnosis.

In English: To hit the nail on the head

To tie the ropes together → To piece together scattered information until you reach a conclusion. It often appears in the gerund: «atando cabos, me di cuenta de que...».

In English: To put two and two together

To turn purple → To eat until you cannot manage another bite. It is also used for overdoing anything, as in «ponerse morado de series».

In English: To pig out

Blue prince → The perfect fairy-tale partner, the ideal man you wait for all your life. These days it often turns up with a note of irony.

In English: Prince Charming

To turn someone green → To speak very badly of a person, generally behind their back. Do not confuse it with envy: here green is criticism, not jealousy.

In English: To badmouth someone

To sing the forty → To give someone a stern telling-off, saying every home truth at once. The one doing the singing is the one who had been holding the complaint in.

In English: To read someone the riot act

To be left blank → To forget everything all at once, especially in an exam or a presentation. Your mind switches off just when you need it most.

In English: To draw a blank

Every two by three → All the time, at a frequency that has become annoying. Note that English counts in minutes rather than in numbers.

In English: Every five minutes