• Hey, Juan.
• What’s up, Luis? Is everything okay?
• Yeah, everything’s fine. I just want to talk to you for a second. Do you have a minute?
• Sure, what’s going on?
• Well, look. For a while now I’ve been trying to think of a way to surprise my mom for her birthday. I haven’t had much luck, but today I had the idea of taking her on a tour of the theaters downtown, I’m sure she’ll love it.
• Good idea!
• But hey, you can’t tell anyone, okay? I don’t want her to find out before her birthday.
• Don’t worry, I won’t say anything.
• Thanks!

If after this conversation Luis’s mom comes along and starts to pester Juan, asking him what her son said, what he’s going to give her, saying not to worry because she won’t say anything, and things of that nature, what Luis’s mom is doing is tirar de la lengua (pulling on someone’s tongue… in this case, Juan’s.)

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If you insist that someone tells you something you know they’re not supposed to, in Spanish we say that you’re pulling their tongue (le estás tirando de la lengua).

Why do we say that?

The origins of this saying aren’t clear, but the truth is, it’s easy to visualize.

Metaphorically speaking, your words and everything you say comes from your tongue. Therefore, continuing with the metaphor, if someone could pull on your tongue, they could see all the words you don’t want to say written all over it.

Of course, since that’s not actually possible, the expression tirar de la lengua is used to say that a person is being very insistent, perhaps overly insistent, to try to get someone to tell them what they want to hear.

If you want to know and discover more expressions with lengua, take a look at this video and you’ll be able to speak in Spanish whenever you want.

The tongue — the muscle that allows us to speak Spanish whenever we want. It’s also a recurring theme in several common Spanish expressions.

It’s a word that causes a lot of headaches. Why in Spanish do we say morderse la lengua (bite your tongue) when you’re not really going to bite it?

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And what in the world are people with lengua de trapo (rag tongue)? It must be impossible for someone to talk with a rag in their mouth…

These are just a couple of the many Spanish sayings that use the word lengua, or tongue. Today we’re going to take a closer look at these two expressions: morderse la lengua and lengua de trapo.

Surely this has happened to you at some point in your life…

Someone you know comes up to you and tells you something extremely personal. It’s something very important, so they ask you to please not tell anyone. You tell them not to worry, you won’t.

Then, if someone else comes and asks you what the person said, you’ll have to morderte la lengua (bite your tongue) to make sure you don’t repeat a single word of what was said.

You can also use this expression in a different context. Imagine you’re at work and you’ve just finished a very important project. Suddenly, when you go to present it, your boss tells everyone that he was the one who did it. It‘s possible that to avoid having problems with your boss, you may decide to morderte la lengua and not say anything to anyone that would reveal the truth.

As you can see, morderse la lengua means that you don’t say anything, you resist the temptation to tell someone something that you have to keep quiet, whatever the reason.

On the other hand, tener lengua de trapo is completely different.

Have you ever heard a young child talk?

When children are around one and a half or two years old, they begin to speak their first intelligible words.

They try to express themselves by imitating what they’ve heard from their parents or other people around them. The problem is that most of the time, they’re not able to pronounce the words correctly, and adults can’t understand what they’re trying to say.

This way of speaking or babbling is what we’re referring to when we say someone has a lengua de trapo (rag tongue). It really sounds like they have a piece of rag in their mouth instead of a tongue.

You know what?

There are lots of other expressions with lengua, so if you want to learn even more, watch this video and we’ll tell you all about them.

Each language has its details, curiosities, history and traditions. But it’s undeniable that Spanish is a language full of expressions and with hundreds and hundreds of synonyms.

The following is only a sample.

You know what a tongue is.

Read the Spanish version

It’s a muscle in the mouth used to speak and to taste. And, tongue is also synonymous with language: the Spanish tongue, the English tongue... But, there is still more. “Lengua” is Spanish for tongue, and in Spanish, lengua can also be a strip of cloth or any elongated, narrow material. But when we look at sayings that involve the tongue, we can see that Spanish and English are quite close…

If they tell you that you are running around with your tongue hanging out (con la lengua fuera), it means that you are going around in a hurry, rushing all over the place. Just imagine, when someone is running and suddenly stops, usually what happens is, because of fatigue, they open their mouth to catch their breath. Suddenly the tongue is visible after so much hurrying about.

However, if someone tells you that you are a tongue wagger (dando la lengua), they mean you are a charlatan. In order to speak, the essential muscle is the tongue. So, if you are moving it a great deal it means that you’re talking a lot, without stopping.

But beware, that is very different from using a prodigal tongue (irse de la lengua). This doesn’t mean this person talks a lot, it means they talk too much, divulging things such as secrets or other confidential information.

So to avoid this, the best thing to do is to bite your tongue (morderse la lengua). But don’t worry, you won’t hurt yourself. Biting your tongue helps to quash the urge to say something. In other words, to not say anything that you might later regret, it is better to bite your tongue and not say it.

But of course, surely you have been in the situation more than once where you have been pressured to talk about something. And after enough insistence, something slipped out and you ended up giving information you hadn’t intended to. Well today you’re going to discover that you have just run across someone who had the ability to loosen your tongue (tirar de la lengua). It is the way we have of saying that one person has strongly urged another to tell him something that, perhaps, he should not have.

And when young children are learning to talk, we say that they trip over their tongue (or have a lengua de trapo). Well no. Children learning to talk don’t actually step on their tongues. it’s just that, since they are beginning to learn, they don’t pronounce well and have a limited vocabulary; it’s as if the words don’t come out properly. Have you ever had that feeling, like sometimes all that comes out is baby talk?

Finally, if you meet a person who has a sharp tongue (or sin pelos en la lengua), you have a direct, sincere and critical person, who will tell you exactly what they think, even when it is not the most appropriate time for it.

So, after this review, you will have noticed that we went from being children and tripping over our tongue, then we grew a little and we couldn’t stop wagging our tongue. As we grow older we always go around with our tongue hanging out, but we try not have a prodigal tongue with people that try to loosen our tongue and, for that reason, we try to bite our tongue. Now, when we must tell the truth, we use our sharp tongue.

What a tongue-twister!

Come join us at don Quijote and learn even more about the Spanish tongue.

Learning Spanish takes time. To make learning easier and more entertaining, today we’re bringing you a list of the best TV shows to learn Spanish depending on your level.

Grab a snack, get comfortable, and get ready to binge on some of the best TV series in Spanish.

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First, for beginners, one of the best series is Cuéntame cómo pasó. It’s about the passing of time and the most important historical events that have happened in Spain from 1968 to 1986 (so far — the show’s still going). It’s the longest running Spanish TV show in history and revolves around what happens to the Alcántara family over the years.

Scene from Cuentame cómo pasó

Since it’s a show for the whole family, the dialogues are usually easy to follow and not too fast, with vocabulary that students of all Spanish levels can understand. It’s the perfect show to start learning Spanish or improve the level you already have.

If you want to hear what Spanish teenagers sound like, a good option is El internado. The story follows two orphan siblings, Marcos and Paula, who quickly discover that everyday life in an elite boarding school is anything but easy. Aside from not getting along with Iván, one of his classmates, Marcos starts to realize that strange things are happening at the school. Mystery, intrigue, high school crushes… this series has got it all, perfect for intermediate Spanish students who want to know how young people in Spain really talk.

Scene from El internado

To learn colloquial Spanish and listen to Spanish spoken by real people, both young and old, Los hombres de Paco is a very fun and entertaining show.

The series revolves around a typical police station. Paco, Lucas, and Mariano are a team of police officers who have big hearts but are clumsy and accident-prone. They complicate their cases, get tangled up in love affairs, show up at the wrong places… thanks to all the different situations they find themselves in, this is the perfect opportunity to hear Spanish as it’s spoken between friends, between adults, between young people, between work colleagues, and in the most common types of everyday situations. Watching this show is a good way to put the Spanish you already know into practice.

Scene from Los hombres de Paco

If you’re more interested in Spanish from Latin America, your best option is definitely Narcos. It follows the true and very dangerous story of an illegal cocaine trafficking network in Colombia. The leading man is Pablo Escobar, one of the biggest capos in history. The dialogue usually follows a relaxed pace, with characters speaking slowly and pausing frequently, making this a great way to learn Latin American Spanish in its purest form.

Scene from Narcos

Can’t make up your mind? For a little bit of everything, our recommendation is El ministerio del tiempo.

It’s a very special storyline. A team from the Ministry is in charge of making sure nobody travels back in time to change anything. Every time the team receives an alert, they’ve got to time travel immediately to make sure the past stays the same and protect the future. Because of the action, the show sometimes has fast dialogues, but other parts are slower, so you can hear Spanish spoken in an office environment, Spanish from other times in history, colloquial Spanish… a winning combination.

Scene from El Ministerio del Tiempo

Now you’ve got five fun ways to learn Spanish or perfect what you already know while you spend your lazy afternoons watching TV in Spanish.

Today we’re going to talk about the Spanish tongue. More concretely, about expressions that use tongue.

In other words, we’re going to have a look at common Spanish sayings that mention tongues.

Oftentimes, what we say isn’t exactly what we mean.

Read this article in Spanish

When you’re speaking in Spanish, sooner or later there will come a time when someone will tell you something serious or important that they don’t want you to tell anyone else. If someone says to you, “No te vayas de la lengua” (Don’t leave your tongue), they’re asking you not to tell anyone what they’ve told you.

I’ll give you an example.

One of your friends tells you that he’s going to give his mom the best present ever. He starts telling you every little detail about the gift and might even ask for your advice on how to buy it. At the end of the conversation, he says

• Y, por favor, no te vayas de la lengua

What does he mean by this? Simple: he’s asking you to keep this a secret so his mom doesn’t find out about the gift he is going to give her.

On the other hand, another expression with tongue is no tener pelos en la lengua (to not have hair on one’s tongue). This means the opposite of the previous expression.

If you meet someone who doesn’t have hair on their tongue it means they’re honest, direct, and will tell you what they think without sugarcoating it.

Here’s an example:

Two old friends run into each other on the street:

• Hey, how are you? Long time no see!
• Yeah, it’s been awhile! You look different.
• Different? Of course, we haven’t seen each other for a long time.
• No, no. You look older.

Even though the person really is older, the fact that their friend has been so direct in saying so means that the friend no tiene pelos en la lengua.

Now you have two new expressions to use when you speak in Spanish. If you want to learn even more, watch this video and write down all the sayings you haven’t heard before!

In Spanish there are hundreds upon hundreds of expressions about different topics, from food to love, the weather, friends…

There are lots of sayings about animals, but today we turn our focus to two very common expressions involving chickens.

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We’ll learn what it means to be a chicken (ser una gallina) and also what it means to have the skin of a chicken (tener la piel de gallina).

If you’ve ever spent any time around chickens, you’ll know that it’s very hard to catch one. If you creep up silently it probably won’t do anything, but the moment it hears your footfall it will start running as fast as its little legs will carry it.

Chickens are so easily frightened that if they feel the slightest hint of fear or see something that scares them, they take off running as fast as they can.

That’s why in Spanish, since we like expressions so much, when a person is quick to fear or afraid of confronting a situation, we say that the person is a chicken (es una gallina).

In fact, having the skin of a chicken (tener la piel de gallina) is also related to fear. It may be an expression, but it’s also a scientifically proven fact.

When a person feels afraid, experiences a change in the temperature, or has a good feeling run through their body (for example, when listening to music), they get what we call goosebumps — or, in Spanish, chicken skin.

It’s a way for the body to protect itself from sudden external changes. Under the skin, there are muscles that tense up, raising each one of the hairs on the surface of the skin. At one time, this reaction helped protect the body from cold temperatures, and today it’s what makes our skin look like la piel de gallina.

Although chickens aren’t an animal most people feel a great affinity for, people and chickens have a lot in common. From now on, you know that if someone is scared to face a situation and wants to run away you can call them una gallina, and if their hair stands on end you know they have la piel de gallina.

If you want to learn even more sayings about animals, enjoy our video about expressions with animals.

We’re already about halfway through August, so you’re probably about to fly away on vacation if you haven’t already done so. But here at don Quijote we’re not going anywhere; we’re sticking around to keep sharing ideas on how to improve your Spanish wherever you are. And since we’re talking about flying, today we’ll explain some expressions featuring birds.

Read this article in Spanish

The first saying we’re going to talk about is something you can use on a cold winter night or a hot summer day. In Spain, even when it’s more than 100 degrees outside, it’s perfectly normal to hear someone in a classroom or restaurant say, “Could you turn down the air conditioning? I’m turning into a little bird.” As you’ve probably guessed, in Spanish, turning into a little bird (quedarse pajarito) has nothing to do with flying through the air or singing a little song; it’s actually about being cold.

But be careful! Don’t mix this up with another Spanish expression that’s very similar: quedarse como un pajarito. Pay attention, because there’s a very important difference: when we say that someone se ha quedado como un pajarito (or they’ve ended up like a little bird), we mean that they’ve died peacefully, without suffering.

Another expression related to birds is tener pájaros en la cabeza (to have birds in the head). Don’t worry, it has nothing to do with The Birds, the movie by Alfred Hitchock; it’s much more pleasant, although it can also have negative consequences for the person involved. When we say that someone has birds in their head, we mean that the person likes to fantasize, or that their head is full of ideas that aren’t very realistic: “Cuando era joven, emprendió un negocio muy arriesgado pensando que se haría rico enseguida. Tenía muchos pájaros en la cabeza.” (When he was young, he started a very risky business thinking he would get rich quickly. He had lots of birds in his head.)

It’s kind of like when the world looks pink, but having birds in your head is more serious because not only are you optimistic, you are also expecting or believing in things that are very unlikely to happen, and that often leads you to make unwise decisions because you think everything is going to work out perfectly.

Now you know two new colloquial expressions you can use when you speak in Spanish. And if somebody asks you where you’ve learned them and you want to be a bit mysterious, you can always say me las ha dicho un pajarito (a little bird told me them). Any Spaniard you say this to will have no problem understanding you, but if you’re talking to a classmate who’s also studying Spanish they might be a bit confused. Do Spanish birds talk?

Of course, in Spain and Latin America, as in most of the world, parrots are the only birds that can talk. People use the expression Me lo ha dicho un pajarito when they don’t want to disclose who they got their information from. So don’t worry, no one will think you’re a Disney princess who talks with animals.

Do you like learning expressions with animals? Here’s a video we’ve prepared so you can learn (and use!) a lot more of them:

We don’t know if it’s thanks to Spain’s more than 3,500 miles of coastline or the importance of fresh fish in Spanish cuisine, but it’s a fact that there are multiple Spanish expressions that revolve around fish. We already told you what it means to cut the cod, so today we’re going to explain some other expressions to make sure nobody tells you that estás muy pez (you are very fish).

Read this article in Spanish

Now that temperatures are climbing over 100 degrees in many parts of Spain, it’s the perfect time to understand what it means to be like a fish in water. Sounds refreshing and enjoyable, doesn’t it? When we say someone is como pez en el agua, we mean that they are feeling good, they’re in their element, they’re in an environment that feels natural and comfortable, or they’re doing a task that’s easy for them. Of course, since the expression doesn’t really refer to fish or an aquatic environment, you can use it any time, even on a cold, rainy day.

At don Quijote we want you to feel like a fish in the water when you speak Spanish, and to make that possible it’s essential for you not to have memoria de pez so you’re able to remember the vocabulary and grammar that you’ve learned. Can you guess what this expression means? Perhaps in your country the idea of fish having a bad memory hasn’t worked its way into the colloquial language, but you’ve probably seen Finding Nemo. In this animated movie, Dory is a fish who is incapable of remembering things that just happened, which leads to all sorts of funny situations.

This myth about fishes’ inability to remember things is behind the expression tener memoria de pez (to have the memory of a fish), which existed before the movie, and is used to refer to people who are scatterbrained or forgetful.

Now that you’re familiar with these two sayings, you’re probably wondering what we were talking about at the beginning of this article, when we said that nobody will tell you that you’re very fish (estás muy pez). Is this expression reserved for people who love swimming or scuba diving? Or does it describe those who are very good at something, something that makes them feel como pez en el agua? Well, we’re very sorry to tell you that it’s actually quite the opposite.

We say that someone está muy pez when they haven’t the slightest idea about something or they have very little experience. For example, it’s common to estar muy pez behind the wheel when we’ve just gotten our driver’s license, or to think that we’re not going to pass the math exam because estamos muy pez and we don’t know how to solve the problems correctly. Of course, this is an expression you’ll never need to talk about your Spanish abilities, we’ll make sure of it!

To help keep you feeling como pez en el agua when you’re speaking Spanish, we recommend you watch the video below, where we explain this and other expressions in which animals play a leading role:

In Spanish culture, the color pink is mostly associated with two ideas: on one hand, it’s linked to optimism and positive or pleasant things; on the other, as in many Western countries, pink is associated with girls and, by extension, women, and the products designed especially for them.

Read this article in Spanish

Once you know this, you probably won’t have a hard time understanding why we say that someone ve todo de color rosa (sees everything pink) when we’re talking about a person who’s usually optimistic… oftentimes excessively or unjustifiably so. In contrast to the hardened pessimist, who sees everything black (ve todo negro), someone who sees everything pink has such an optimistic outlook on life that sometimes they seem a bit naïve or detached from reality.

Of course, you don’t have be the type of person who always looks on the bright side to say ves todo de color rosa: we also use this saying in specific situations that fill us with joy and good feelings about the future. For example, it’s common for everything to look pink when we fall in love or when we have something good on the horizon, like a trip we’re excited about or a new job. It’s when you feel like everything is going to turn out well even before it happens.

So what is the prensa rosa (pink press) all about? Do you think celebrity news is pink because it covers only happy events? In this case, the color pink comes from the second association we talked about: topics and products aimed at women. Despite the fact that in Spain, as in the rest of the world, men are increasingly willing to admit to flipping through prensa rosa or watching programas de corazón (TV shows that cover celebrity news or gossip), and more and more women do not identify with this type of media, the names haven’t changed because when they started, articles and shows about the rich and famous were made to entertain women.

The prensa rosa dates back to the mid-19th century, when the crónica de salones, as it was known then, began to find its way into newspapers and magazines. These articles were aimed especially at women, who were assumed to have no interest in politics or current events, and focused on the gatherings and celebrations of the aristocracy. However, they also attracted male readers because of their tendency to included veiled criticism: like today, the prensa rosa of the era also tended to poner verdes (talk badly about) certain people, with varying levels of discretion. And, as is true in many countries, in Spain sometimes it is that side (as opposed to the “pink” side) of things that readers find most entertaining.

Do you like learning new expressions? We recommend that you watch this video to see us explain different Spanish expressions with colors. You’ll learn something new, and you’ll see how your expectations about learning Spanish will start looking pink in no time!

Of all the colors, black is one of the most special.

It’s a color with its own personality, a color whose mere presence can carry a lot of meaning. In fact, in many Western cultures, black represents death and negative feelings. It’s the color most commonly used in funerals and times of mourning.

Black is actually the absence of other colors; in space it is the absence of light. It is the color of night and nothingness.

Read this article in Spanish

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That’s why when you hear a Spanish expression that mentions the color black, it’s usually not a good thing.

For example, one common saying is that a person me está poniendo negro (is making me turn black). If someone is making you turn black, it means they’re making you angry.

If you’re having a relaxed dinner at a restaurant and the people at the table next to you are speaking really loudly, or their kids are making a lot of noise, and you start getting more and more annoyed, te están poniendo negro (they’re making you turn black). Another thing that might make you turn black is if someone is constantly calling you on the phone about things you have no interest in.

So, now you know that if you’re angry or fed up with a situation, te estás poniendo negro.

But careful, if you spend a lot of time in the sun tanning, another way to say “to tan” is ponerse negro. The meaning of the expression changes depending on the context in which you use it.

There are other expressions with black, too: verlo todo negro (literally, to see something completely black) means to have a pessimistic outlook.

Since black is the color of nothingness, darkness, and the night, if a situation or an incident looks completely black to a person, it means they are not very hopeful that it will turn out well. In other words, they think something will turn out badly, even before it happens.

So if learning Spanish looks completely black to you, or if going to class makes you turn black, watch this video and learn some more Spanish expressions with colors: