Spanish Idioms

Spanish has some really unique idioms; some make me laugh, some make me confused, and some are just downright creative. At least half of them I’m afraid to actually say out loud for fear that they’re a form of swearing. 🙊

I remember the first time I was talking about someone I knew, and my colleague said, “He’s the type of guy who doesn’t have a grandmother.” 👵 I was confused for a second. What did his grandmother--or lack of one-- have to do with his personality? Seeing my confusion, my colleague laughed and explained that in Spanish “no tener abuela” means someone is a braggart, because they “don’t have a grandmother” to brag about them. They have to do all their boasting on their own.

In Spanish slang, if someone is really great, you call them milk.🥛 “Eres la leche” = you’re awesome. Spaniards have a few DOZEN milk idioms. Your boss makes you work “at all milk” (at full speed). “Bad milk” means a bad mood, devious intentions, a bad relationship between two people, bad luck or well, that the actual milk is bad. It’s all in the context. And those are just the *clean* expressions using milk. Believe me, it only gets worse from there. 😳

If you do something pointless, you “throw water in the sea.”

If you do something out of order, you “start the house from the roof” in Spanish.

Someone who talks a lot “talks through his elbows”😂. And there are sooo many more.

The idiom I say the most is “el mundo es un pañuelo” (the world is a handkerchief) because it means we live in a small world after all, and in my life it’s true! Who would’ve ever though that a kid from Glen Burnie, Maryland would make her life in Spain? One week from today, I’ll say goodbye to my family and head off on that plane again for another four years. If the world is a handkerchief, then I’m glad I can take you all with me right in my pocket. ❤️