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This week’s misunderstood expression is “ser más chulo que un ocho“, meaning, literally, ‘to be cooler than an eight’. The actual meaning, however, is ‘to be a show-off’. I know what you are thinking: why would number 8 (in Spanish, ocho) be related to being cool… or a show-off? Keep reading to find out! To understand this expression, we first need to understand the meaning of chulo. Chulo (or chula) is an adjective that, in Spain, can mean ‘cool’, ‘cute’…

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The word ‘lata’ has two very different meanings in Spanish. The first one is can (the metal container in which food and drinks can be kept). This is the most common meaning and the one that most people know about. However, colloquially, “lata” also means ‘something that causes distaste and disgust‘. This is why, although “dar la lata” can be translated literally as ‘to give the can‘, the actual meaning of this misunderstood expression is ‘to bother or inconvenience someone‘.…

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This week’s misunderstood expression is “dar calabazas a alguien“, which is what you do when someone “te tira los tejos” (see last week’s expression!) but you are not interested in them. Dar calabazas, as you might have guessed, means ‘to turn somebody down‘ or ‘to reject someone‘. However, the expression’s literal meaning is ‘to give someone pumpkins‘ – yes, pumpkins! The expression dar calabazas a alguien dates back to the late 1700s, but we will have to travel much further…

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“Tirar los tejos” is a colloquial expression meaning, literally, ‘to throw the roof tiles (at someone)‘. Surprisingly, the real meaning is actually ‘to flirt with someone‘. You may be thinking that throwing roof tiles at someone is maybe not the best way of flirting, but this idiom actually comes from a very special type of flirting involving… Well, yes: roof tiles. The origin of this expression seems to come from an old game called ’tile’ (in Spanish, tejo) that involved…

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“Cortar el bacalao” is the Spanish equivalent of ‘to call the shots‘ – meaning ‘to be in charge‘. However, cortar means ‘to cut’, and bacalao is a fish – cod, in fact – so the expression literally means ‘to cut the cod‘. A variation is “partir el bacalao“, which means essentially the same. Hence, “el que corta el bacalao” o “la que corta el bacalao” (as in, “Mi mujer es la que corta el bacalao“) is the person in charge,…

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