To bring these back around to things that can be said in front of (or to) your abuela, I remember that to be an "aguafiestas" meant to be a wet blanket or party pooper.

And beer-related language isn't something we learn in high school--I can't recall anyone EVER ordering a "cerveza" in Spain--always a caña (small draft) or tubo (slightly larger draft). And I remember that "estar piripi" meant to be tipsy (not quite drunk).

I have a list of these sorts of things, from my stay in Salamanca in 1990, on a sheet of paper labeled "things to remember." I'll pull it out and share those as well.

[This message has been edited by taravb (edited 03-16-2001).]

"Llevar al huerto" means you are getting the better end of the deal, that's the polite meaning...Mi marido madrileño won't let me print the more vulgar meaning.

Oh my goodness. hahahahaa.. I can JUST imagine all the school teachers out there who use this board as a teaching tool. Think about all the phrases they'll be using in class next week. ARGH! Hahahaa... I've heard my ladyfriend use the "Me cago en su padre" and also says, as rgf does, "....en dios" is TRULY vulgar, practically the worst thing you say. I find particularly funny the "...en todos los antepasados de cualquier persona!"

I think Tara was thinking about colloquialisms in general, not just swear words.

I wouldn't recommend Spanish teachers to teach them since you need a deep knowledge of Spanish to be able to use them properly. Otherwise, it sounds funny or you can even make people angry with you. It could be dangerous. Just think about the difference between de puta madre and tu puta madre.

Anyway, I guess it's kind of fun to teach them or show them a few swear words just to let them know.

As for the expression llevar a alguien al huerto I would considered an old-fashioned one. (By the way is "huerto" not "huerta").

Although you could say "me cago en tus antepasados" (in Spanish you can **** on many different things ), what we sometimes say it's "me cago en tus muertos".

[This message has been edited by Antonio (edited 03-16-2001).]

ok, not bad eddie and others... i guess i owe a Mahou or two. cheers!

but i was definitely looking for the definition implying the 'carnal implications.' not everyone knows that one... (whoops! i meant to include that my diplomatic definition was 'a roll in the hay.' )

antonio, my friends had all taught me 'llevar a la HUERTA.' what's the difference? is it possible that there are other ways of saying the same thing in this case? regionalisms? i learned this from friends in la mancha...

awrite, just tell me where to send the mahou's i owe you...



[This message has been edited by mahou_fan (edited 03-16-2001).]

[This message has been edited by mahou_fan (edited 03-16-2001).]

'Hacer una putada' is a colloquialism that I especially like - 'Me has hecho una putada bien grande' would mean 'you really screwed me big time.'

As with many 'old world' cities (London, for example), Madrileños often speak in refranes (refrains) such as 'Puta la madre y puta la hija y puta la manta que las cobija,' which says that such things run in families. On the syntax charts, refrains may be one level above colloquialisms.

for Calibasco:
The way it was explained to me: 'vete a la pura' (not porra) is a shorter, more polite way of saying 'vete a la mierda.' Sort of like 'hija de la gran ... Bretania,' instead of something more unacceptable.


[This message has been edited by Eddie (edited 03-17-2001).]

I would think your friends were taking the piss out of you. I have never heard of "huerta" in that expression. Why?. I don't know. It's just they way it is. They are fixed expressions.

---

Eddie, I didn't know "Puta la madre..." was a refrain. It's an expression used by Cervantes (I can't tell you in which book it appears), but I have never heard anyone using it.

What a good idea for a post! I had almost forgotten about Ostias/ostras.

As for "vale," I lived with a family in Spain that used that ALL the time, so I started to also. One of my Spanish friends was eventually nice enough to explain that it was used often but not as much as I was using it. As it turns out, one of the kids in the house was named "Valentino," nicknamed "vale" for short - (can you tell I am bad at names? I went a month and a half before realizing what his was). This accounted ofr my extreme overuse of the term as I thought it often came before "pass me the bread, where are you going? etc.

[This message has been edited by Nicole (edited 03-17-2001).]

Antonio:
I have a paperback book: Refranero Español; Madrid, Ediciones Ibericas, 1968. Its 481 pages contain more than 8.000 popular refrains - that's where I got 'Puta la Madre'

¿No me digas? ¡Cuenta, Cuenta!

As for Cervantes - since he was from Alcala de Henares (Madrid), maybe he used refrains also?

Nicole, thanks for my laugh of the day! That sounds exactly like something I would do.