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Cultural Digest

30 Essential Spanish Idioms Explained

Want to sound like a native Spanish speaker? Learn these common Spanish idioms and expressions to sound like a native speaker.

Spanish idioms

25 popular Spanish idioms

  1. Echar una mano - To lend a hand. To help someone out.

  2. Costar un ojo de la cara - To cost an arm and a leg. To be very expensive.

  3. A lo hecho, pecho - What's done is done. No use crying over spilt milk.

  4. Andar con pies de plomo - To tread carefully. To walk on eggshells.

  5. A cada cerdo le llega su San Martín - What goes around comes around.

  6. Darse cuenta - To realize. To become aware of something.

  7. Dar el brazo a torcer - To give in, to admit defeat.

  8. Echar leña al fuego - To add fuel to the fire. To make a situation worse.

  9. En un abrir y cerrar de ojos - In the blink of an eye. Very quickly.

  10. Ir con pies de plomo - To tread carefully. To be cautious.

  11. Llover a cántaros - To rain cats and dogs. To rain very heavily.

  12. Meter la pata - To put your foot in your mouth. To say something inappropriate.

  13. No tener pelos en la lengua - To not mince words. To speak bluntly.

  14. Partirse de risa - To split your sides laughing. To laugh uncontrollably.

  15. Quedarse con la boca abierta - To be left open-mouthed. To be very surprised.

  16. Sacar las castañas del fuego - To pull someone's chestnuts out of the fire. To help someone out of trouble.

  17. Ser pan comido - To be a piece of cake. To be very easy.

  18. Tirar la casa por la ventana - To spare no expense. To go all out.

  19. Tomar el pelo - To pull someone's leg. To tease someone.

  20. Volver loco - To drive someone crazy. To annoy someone intensely.

  21. Llover sobre mojado - It never rains but it pours. When things go from bad to worse.

  22. No tener ni pies ni cabeza - To not make head nor tail of something. To be nonsense.

  23. Costar un riñón - To cost a fortune. To be very expensive.

  24. Irse por las ramas - To go off on a tangent. To stray from the main topic.

  25. Hablar por los codos - To chatter nonstop. To talk excessively.

  26. Dar en el clavo - To be assertive. (English Counterpart: To be spot on)

  27. Entre la espada y la pared - Having to choose between two bad things. (English Counterpart: Rock and a hard place)

  28. Matar dos pájaros de un tiro - To get two things done at once. (English Counterpart: To hit two birds with one stone)

  29. Ser uña y carne - To be very close to someone. (English Counterpart: To be thick as thieves)

Spanish Idioms With Colors

  1. De punta en blanco - Well dressed for a special occasion. (English Counterpart: Dressed to the nines, dressed to kill)

  2. Dar en el blanco - To be right, to be assertive. (English Counterpart: To hit the bullseye)

  3. Ver todo color de rosa - To be or see everything with excessive optimism. (English Counterpart: To see through rose-colored glasses)

Spanish Idioms with Animals

  1. Tener vista de lince - To have an excellent vision. (English Counterpart: To have an eagle eye)

  2. Tener memoria de pez - To have a bad memory. (English Counterpart: To have a memory of a sieve)

  3. Ser la oveja negra - To be good for nothing. (English Counterpart: To be the black sheep)

Spanish Idioms with Food and Drinks

  1. Ser del año de la pera - To be very very old. (English Counterpart: To be from another era)

  2. Dar la vuelta a la tortilla - To turn the situation around. (English Counterpart: To turn the tables)

  3. No importar un pepino/rábano - To be irrelevant. (English Counterpart: Do not care, couldn’t care less)

Spanish Idioms with Body Parts

  1. Con la soga al cuello - To be in a situation with a lot of pressure. (English Counterpart: To be in trouble, or up to one’s neck)

  2. Sin pelos en la lengua - To be straightforward, to be completely honest. (English Counterpart: To not mince your words)

  3. Buscar la quinta pata al gato - To make something way more complicated than it is. (English Counterpart: To take the scenic route)

Spanish Idioms in Anki

Have you ever come across a Spanish sentence in which you understood every word in the sentence, but still could not understand the sentence itself? That sentence probably used an idiom: a phrase or a fixed expression that has meaning that is different from the literal meaning.

This deck is a collection of 782 Spanish idioms, taken from Keniston's "Spanish idiom list". The complete book is public domain and you can read it for free at http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001631055. This deck contains all of the idioms in Part A of the book.

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