Admin
One of the most confusing but also most fun parts of learning Spanish is discovering expressions that don’t make sense when you try to translate them word for word. Mexican Spanish in particular has many colloquial sayings that students hear in daily on TV show conversations but that are not easy to figure out at first.
Here are ten more of them. The first column gives you the original phrase in Spanish. The second column shows the literal translation in English, which often sounds strange. The third column shows a more natural English equivalent, so you can understand what people really mean when they use these expressions.
| Spanish Expression | Literal English | Colloquial English Equivalent |
|---|---|---|
| Ni sus luces | Not even his/her lights | No sign of him/her / left no trace. |
| Hazlo Como Dios te dé a entender | Do it as God makes you understand | Do it however you can / wing it / Improvise |
| Pasado de lanza | Past the spear | That was way too much / over the line / Overstepped a boundary or gone beyond acceptable limits. Euphemism of something vulgar (pasado de v3rga) |
| Dio el viejazo | He/she gave the big old hit | He/she suddenly looks old / A person who aged noticeably in a short period of time. (Probably stress or illness). |
| El Torito (Ir al Torito, terminar en el Torito) | To end up in the The Little Bull | To end up in a special jail for drunk driving in Mexico City, usually overnight. |
| Qué hueva | What an egg (spawn) | What a drag / I’m too lazy. It could be vulgar, like balls. (Italian: che palle!) |
| Acordeón | Accordion | Cheat sheet (for exams). Acordarse in Spanish means to remember and to remind, also, accordion is how many cheatsheets are folded. |
| Ve tú a saber | You go know | Who knows. |
| Se colgó | He/she hanged on | Took too long / dragged it out |
| Encimoso | On top | Clingy / too pushy / A person who is all over you |
As you can see, if you only look at the literal translation, it is almost impossible to understand what these expressions really mean. For example, “qué hueva” has nothing to do with eggs in English, but it is one of the most common ways to say that something feels boring or tiring. “El Torito” in Mexico City is not an animal but the place where drivers go if they fail a breathalyzer test.
When you learn expressions like these, you are not just learning words but also a piece of culture. They give you a window into how people see things, how humor works, and how creativity shapes the language. It is always a good idea to write them down, ask native speakers about them, and try to use them little by little in conversations.
