Using Idioms and Expressions: The ball is in your court!

I’m not going to beat about the bush with an introduction. In fact I am going to  let the cat out of the bag immediately and let you have it straight from the horse’s mouth.

What on earth am I talking about? Well, idioms of course.

In a nutshell, an idiom is a popular expression used to explain something through examples. They are almost impossible to translate because they relate to a particular cultural identity. That means Google Translator is out of the question if we want to translate them.  For example, if you put  the idiom I used in the introduction “straight from the horse’s mouth” into Google you get “directe de la boca del cavall”, which let’s face it, means nothing to, in this case, a speaker of Catalan.

If you watch the video below you will get a graphic idea of some commonly used idioms in English.

The great thing about idioms is that they add colour and diversity to language, and when you use them correctly, although that might only be once in a blue moon (“de Pasqües a Rams” in Catalan) it gives you a certain satisfaction.

With this in mind, I’d love to create a list of idioms and their translations. So why don’t we use this space to do it? Send in your favourite idioms in English, Spanish or Catalan and let’s see, between all of us, if we can find good translations for them.

Oh and by the way, when you have heard something straight from the horse’s mouth it means you have heard it from the highest authority, from the person who knows the most about it. The translation into Catalan might be “de primera mà”.