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Funny comparisons between English and Spanish idioms Hi English learners! There is something of learning English that amuses me a lot and it is when I try to learn idioms and common sayings in English. Obviously they can not be translated literally, but what is funny is how every community created a saying to express the same thing but how they chose many different examples to do that. There are some curious examples, but today I would like to focus on some expressions which are completely different and use parts of the body. A funny example is 'to pull someone’s leg' which in Spanish would be 'to pull someone's hair' when you want to say that someone is cheating you. Is the hair for a Spanish speaker more important than his leg? Another one is 'two heads are better than one', which in Spanish would be 'two eyes can see more than just one'. Heads or eyes?... I could find other examples... When you say: 'it costs an arm and a leg', Spanish speakers would prefer keeping their eyes because we say' it costs an eye'... 'To bite your lip' is in Spanish 'to bite your tongue'. Is that because Spanish people are more talkative? 'Put your foot in it' is in Spanish 'to put your leg on it' (not only the foot, but the whole leg)... and 'to cost an arm and a leg' is in Spanish 'to cost an egg' (it is important to note here that egg is commonly understood like a part of men's body, but expressed in an very informal way)... Well, it is always difficult to include idioms in our conversations but, as English speakers would say in this situation: 'Rome wasn't built in a day', which in Spanish would be 'Zamora wasn't won in an hour (Zamora is a Spanish city where there was a famous battle). I would like you to take part in the post and to add some of those idioms you know (your favourite ones or those we can compare with other languages). Thanks for reading and sharing!!! :)

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Funny comparisons differences between English and Spanish idioms

Hi English learners!
There is something of about learning English that amuses me a lot and it that is when I try to learn idioms and common sayings ('in English' - you can omit this, we already know what you are talking about from when you mention 'learning English). Obviously they cannot be translated literally, but what is funny is how every community created a saying to express the same thing but how they chose many different examples to do that.

There are some curious examples, but today I would like to focus on some expressions which are completely different and use parts of the body. A funny example is 'to pull someone’s leg' which in Spanish would be 'to pull someone's hair' when you want to say that someone is cheating you.

'To pull someone's leg' doesn't mean to cheat someone. It means to joke around or tease someone.

Is the hair for a Spanish speaker more important to a Spanish speaker than his a leg? Another one is 'two heads are better than one', which in Spanish would be 'two eyes can see more than just one'. Heads or eyes?... I could find other examples... Whereas you say: 'it costs an arm and a leg', Spanish speakers would prefer to keep keeping their eyes because we say' it costs an eye'... 'To bite your lip' is in Spanish 'to bite your tongue' in Spanish. ('To bite your tongue' is also an expression in English.) Is that because Spanish people are more talkative? 'Put your foot in it' is in Spanish 'to put your leg on it' in Spanish (not only just the foot, but the whole leg)... and 'to cost an arm and a leg' is in Spanish 'to cost an egg' (it is important to note here that egg is commonly understood like a to mean a particular part of a man's body, but expressed in a very informal way)... 


Well, it is always difficult to include idioms in our conversations but, as English speakers would (might) say in this situation: 'Rome wasn't built in a day', which in Spanish would be 'Zamora wasn't won in an hour (Zamora is a Spanish city where there was once a famous battle).

I would like you to take part in this post and to add some of those idioms you know (your favourite ones or those we can compare with other languages). Thanks for reading and sharing!!! :)

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