Posts tagged language
Posts tagged language
Literal translation: from the mouth out
Meaning: you don’t mean what you say.
Significado: usted no siente lo que dice o no es sincero.
Use: general
Literal transation: There’s a cat in a knapsack there.
Meaning: Something doesn’t add up or make sense. Someone is hiding something.
Significado: Algo no tiene sentido o no concuerda. Alguien está escondiendo algo.
Use: general
Example: El dinero se perdió el día que el vino. Ahí hay gato entre macuto. (The money disappeared the day he came by. There’s a cat in a knapsack there.)
Literal translation: there’s more salt than goat (in this dish).
Meaning: of a situation - it is more trouble than it is worth.
Significado: “Es más la sal que el chivo”: no vale la pena, es más el esfuerzo que el resultado.
Use: general
Literal translation: to go through a corridor.
Meaning: to go through hardship.
Significado: pasar por momentos difíciles.
Use: general, colloquial.
Example: Aquí estoy, pasando crujía. (Here I am, going through hardship - an answer to the question: How are you? often heard in the DR).
Literal translation: you turned into maw and feathers.
Meaning: to tell someone they failed to live up to a promise, fulfill a commitment or simply do something they said they would do (such as showing up at a party). “Buche y pluma” can be used to refer to people, organizations or the government.
Significado: esta frase se usa cuando una persona no cumple una promesa o no hace algo que dijo que haría, como asistir a una fiesta. “Buche y pluma” puede usarse para referirse a personas, organizaciones y el gobierno.
Use: general
Example: Me quedé esperándote anoche en la fiesta. Te volviste buche y pluma.
Literal translation: to swallow a cable.
Meaning: to go through difficult times. Especially used to refer to economic hardship.
Significado: pasar por momentos difíciles. Usado especialmente en casos de dificultad económica.
Use: general
Example: Y tu hermano, ¿cómo está? - Tragándose un cable en Nueva York. Hace un año que no consigue trabajo.
Literary translation: “In the absence of bread, cassava bread”. “Casabe” is bread made of grated cassava root (yucca). Yucca root is abundant in Hispaniola island and was a staple of the native Taino inhabitants. Cassava bread is part of the Taino heritage and the recipe, as well as the look of it hasn’t changed much over the years. Here’s a video in Spanish of how Casabe is made in the Dominican Republic.
Meaning: Settle for what you can get. Enjoy what you have if you can’t get what you want. (This is used to refer to food, circumstances, and people).
Significado: Al referirse a comida, circunstancias o personas - confórmese con lo que puede conseguir. Disfrute lo que tiene, si no puede conseguir lo que quiere.
Use: general
Literal translation: Lots of foam, very little chocolate
Meaning: Lots of fuss, very little substance. Used to refer to people or events that build up expectations and then do not deliver.
Significado: Mucha algarabía y poca esencia. Se usa para referirse a una persona o evento que llena de expectativas a los demás pero no cumple con las mismas.
Use: colloquial
Literal translation: to throw fabric.
Meaning: to wear new clothing, or to have a large wardrobe.
Significado: vestir ropa nueva, or tener un closet con mucha ropa nueva.
Use: colloquial, general.
Example: Fulanito está tirando tela! Ay míralo.
Literal translation: now, there it is!
Meaning: that person is the real deal, that person is of value, is good looking or has the goods. I like that person.
Significado: dícese de una persona que a usted le agrada (no en el sentido romántico), a quien usted considera de valor, se ve bien o de quien usted aprueba.
Use: colloquial
