This is an article from the web site Expatcia. A friend of mine here in Valencia, Steven Flans, sent it to me. I love how the Spanish use milk so I wanted to share this article.
"Spaniards might not be crazy about drinking "la leche" but they are obsessed when it comes to creating quirky Spanish phrases.
Despite the fact that Spaniards have a much lower consumption per-capita then the UK (or the US) they are idiomatically at least, obsessed with milk. From giving a milk to having bad milk to going at full milk, leche has produced some of the most useful Spanish phrases.
The Spanish Royal Academy, the organisation charged with safeguarding the Spanish language, lists more than 40 Spanish phrases or idioms using it - none of which have anything to do with the white stuff.
Here are some of the most useful leche Spanish phrases, although be careful. Some Spanish phrases have contradictory meaning of "la leche", depending on the context.
Tener mala leche - to have bad milk
This means to be in a bad mood. or to be bad tempered. This Spanish meaning harks from the days when people believed that babies inherited personality traits through breast milk, which is why wet nurses were carefully selected in order not to pass bad milk on to babies.
Mala leche - bad milk
On its own, mala leche can mean bad luck. So !Qué mala leche tiene! can mean "What bad luck he has". As the Spanish way to call someone lucky uses the verb tener, this can be easily confused with the first point by foreigners. Not by the Spaniards however, who always seem to know which meaning is intended at any given time.
A mala leche/con mala leche - with bad milk
An action undertaken "with bad milk" conjures the Spanish meaning that it was done with bad intentions from the beginning. Subtly different to above, the two meanings can easily be confused when referring to a person: context will dictate whether they had a bad temper or bad intentions.
Hay mala leche - there is bad milk
In this sense, mala leche means bad blood of ill feeling. So "hay mucha mala leche entre él y su hermano" means "there is a lot of bad feeling between him and his brother"
Ser la leche - to be the milk
Confusingly, this phrase can mean either to be really good or really bad. So if a new phone is "la leche", it is very good, but the same phrase could be used to condemn an old phone that keeps breaking. When applied to a person !eres la leche!, it can mean almost anything. For example, "he thinks he is the milk" "se cree la leche" can be translated as "he thinks he is all that"
A toda leche - at full milk
This essentially means "at a maximum level". So "ir a toda leche" means "to go really fast", "trabajar a toda leche" means "to work flat out" and "hacer los deberes a toda leche" means "to do your homework at top speed"
La leche de - the milk of
This means a lot of something. So "saber la leche" about a given subject means to know a lot about it, while to be " la leche de listo"
means to be very clever and "hace una leche de calor" means that it's extremely hot. This can also mean a lot of nothing, so "no sabe ni la leche" translates as "he doesn't know anything"
De la leche - of the milk
Similar to the above, this phrase is used as an intensifier. So "un dolor de la leche" means a really strong pain and " una suerte de la leche" means a really good fortune.
?Qué leches? - what milks?
An expression of surprise, that could be translated as "what on earth?" or the more vulgar "what the hell?", depending on context. For example ?Qué leches haces aquí?" can be translated as "what on earth are you doing here?" or "what the hell are you doing here?" Thus structure also works with other questions such a "?cuándo leches?", when on earth and ?por qué leches?" why on earth.
!Leches! - milks
This exclamation can mean anything from shock, wonder or surprise to annoyance, and listeners are expected to understand depending on the situation. It can also be used in the singular, as Spaniards exclaim simply !leche! milder than an expletive, in this context it can be translated as anything from "heaven's sake!" to "goodness" to "well I never".
Toda esa leche - all that milk
This phrase has a vague meaning, which can be roughly translated as "all that stuff", "all that jazz" or "all that kind of thing", as in tengo que comprar pan, agua y toda esa leche" "I have to buy bread, water and all that kind of thing".
Dar una leche - to give a milk
To slap, hit, smack or punch someone. For example, !te voy a dar un leche!" means "I am going to slap you"
Darse una leche - to give oneself a milk
When reflexive, this expression means to hurt oneself accidentally by bumping or crashing into something. For example, " Andrea resbaló por la calle y se dio una leche" means that Andrea slipped and fell on the street, but "Andrea se dio una leche con el coche" means she had a crash in her car.
Cagarse en la leche - to shit in the milk
Spaniards idiomatically defecate on everything: from God to your mother to the salty sea, so it seems only fitting that milk should be included in this list. The expression is used to express anger or frustration, and the Spanish meaning again harks back to breastfeeding - the original phrase meant to "shit in the milk that you were fed"
No comments:
Post a Comment