Learning Spanish can get really boring. When to use which article (ugh), when to use the ‘estaba’ past versus the ‘estuvo’ past (ugh), the subjunctive (TRIPLE ugh)…there are definitely parts of it that are, shall we say, less than invigorating. But there is one thing that I absolutely love learning in Spanish, and that’s bizarre expressions. Lately, I’ve encountered more than few funny phrases involving my favorite furry beasts of all – cats! So, I’m pretty excited to share the best Spanish cat expressions I’ve picked up.
If we’ve ever talked in real life, chances are I’ve shoved my Instagram under your nose and made you look at at least one picture of my adorable, gigantic pet cats. Naturally, the excuse to force even more people to look at my cats’ charming photos AND at the same time share my new favorite Spanish cat expressions is a two-for-one deal for me
Let’s start off with an easy one…
“La curiosidad mató al gato”
Literal translation: Curiosity killed the cat!
What it actually means: Same as in English – there’s such a thing as too curious.
Whatever it was, it wasn’t us.
“Gato con guantes no caza ratones”
Literal translation: A cat with gloves doesn’t hunt mice.
What it actually means: It’s making fun of people who over-complicate things that make solving the problem much harder in the end. Just imagine trying to put a pair of gloves on your pet cat…
Look at those little white gloves he has on. That’s why he’s not going for the mouse.
“Por la noche todos los gatos son pardos”
Literal translation: At night all cats are brown.
What it actually means: Apparently “All cats are grey in the dark” exists in English, but I’ve never heard it. It has a bunch of different meanings, like that everyone is the same under some circumstances so the differences don’t matter. Another one, coming from Mr. Benjamin Franklin, is used as a justification to hook up with an older lady…or to bring cats back into it, a cougar!
You might think these kittens are all brown, but it’s just a night-vision photo. (Retrieved via Funtrest.net)
“A ver quien le pone el cascabel al gato”
Literal translation: Let’s see who puts the bell on the cat.
What it actually means: Let’s see who’s going to be the first person to do something hard. To take the plunge.
Nice try. (Retrieved via WikiHow)
“Dar gato por liebre”
Literal translation: To take the cat for a hare.
What it actually means: To rip someone off, especially when someone tries to sell you something that looks good, but is actually of poor quality. It comes from trying to pass cat meat off as hare meat.
This guy isn’t happy about being ripped off…or wearing the bunny ears. (Retrieved via KittenToob)
“Buscarle tres pies al gato”
Literal translation: To look for three feet on the cat.
What it actually means: To complicate things unnecessarily or go looking for trouble. In some Spanish-speaking regions, they say to look for five feet on the cat, which makes much more sense (I’m pretty sure you’ll find three feet fairly easily on most cats).
Go on, I dare you to find my fourth foot in this picture.
“Hay gato encerrado”
Literal translation: There’s a cat locked up.
What it actually means: Something’s not right. In English, we might say “I smell a rat” or “there’s something fishy” (funnily enough, both things my cats love to eat).
The daft one gets himself good and encerrado in the kitchen chair.
“Somos cuatro gatos”
Literal translation: We are four cats.
What it actually means: It’s a small group of people.
Retrieved via EnriqueDans.com
“Estar como gato panza arriba”
Literal translation: To be as happy as a cat tummy-up.
What it actually means: To be really happy! Come on, have you ever seen a happier cat than this one?
I hope you’ve enjoyed learning some funny Spanish expressions with cat! As one last attempt to make somebody look at my cat photos, here is proof of just how giant the big one is (note: I am a fairly small human, but not abnormally so):
Happy Spanish learning!
Do you know any other fun expressions involving cats?
Besos!
-Jess
Brilliant Jessica, it was a funny and well prepared article. this is the way for learning a language.congrats
Miguel Ángel Otero Soliño recently posted…Castro de Baroña
Thanks Miguel! 🙂 Yes, I Like learning expressions, it makes learning the language a lot more fun. Spanish has some excellent ones!
Jessica,I´ve just remembered two sentences more about cats
1) “lecomió la lengua el gato” you use it when u look someone who dont talk for a specific reason. It is a bit ironic expression
2) “Tener siete vidas como los gatos” you use it when someone is a strong person and he recovers himself physically and pyschology all the time. For istance, our king said after his last operation “soy como los gatos tengo siete vidas”, it means that I am still alive and I will recover form this and more
Miguel Ángel Otero Soliño recently posted…Castro de Baroña
We can say the first one in English too! It’s “Cat got your tongue?”
The second one is funny, because we say something similar. Only our cats have nine lives, not seven. 🙂
Love it! Who knew there were so many expressions involving cats! Isn’t there another expression in Spanish “like an octopus in a garage” or something like that? Can’t remember what it means.
YES! That’s my all-time favorite animal expression (so far). It’s “más perdido que un pulpo en un garaje”. I learned it a few weeks ago and just laughed and laughed.
There are more expression related to Octopus. Let me show u some expamples:
1) “es un pulpo o Vaya pulpo”. This isnt a good sentence for men. Girl usually say this about a man who like to touch girls in a sexual way. For instance, when a girl is dancing in a bar and a guy stay close for touching her body. This expression is because octopùs have a lot of tentacles and they can touch many things at the same time.
2) “le esta cayendo la del pulpo” When someone is receiving some kind of verbal or physical abuse. For example, when your boss is shouting because you didnt do your work properly. The expression origin is that if u are fisherman and u catch an octopus you need hit it strongly if u do no that the octopus flesh wont be enough tender
We can say the first one in English too! It’s very descriptive.
The second one sounds quite strange to me, but I like it!
Thanks for your extra phrases, I love learning new ones. 🙂
Jessica of HolaYessica recently posted…Learning Spanish with Fun Cat Expressions
Oh my, what a pair of adorable whoppers 🙂
I’ve never understood that “Buscarle tres pies al gato” dicho, makes absolutely no sense to me, glad to hear a five-footed version exists. I might start to use that one.
ladyofthecakes recently posted…My Friday Treat: Cheesecake!
Yes, I read that it was used in countries like Chile, and in some countries they say ‘patas’ instead of ‘pies’. I’m not sure how the Spanish cats ended up getting such a weird version of it! As language learner, it makes zero sense.
Hahahaha I loved this post! Pretty pictures of your adorable cats ^_^
Re: the dar gato por liebre phrase—it actually comes from “los años de hambre” during and after the Spanish Civil War when food was so scarce that people would “hunt” stray cats in the street and sell them as rabbits in the market because a skinless, headless cat is supposed to look just like a rabbit. O_o
Trevor Huxham recently posted…Confessions of a Texan in Spain
Urgh, that’s a bit grim, isn’t it? Although I suppose it makes sense…
Jessica of HolaYessica recently posted…Learning Spanish with Fun Cat Expressions
Very true. Grandma used to say that a group was eating and somebody said “Meow” . Imagine the face of the diners. Sometimes it was used as a joke
This is such a great idea for a post! I’ve been travelling in South America for the last year and haven’t run into any cat expressions at all – but then again I get the feeling people here rather despite cats… I wonder if Spaniards are much more enamoured of cats and that’s why they’ve included them in so much vernacular?
Flora the Explorer recently posted…A Last Minute Galapagos Cruise
Thanks Flora! 🙂 I did find some cat phrases they use in South America on WordReference, but of course some of them are different and maybe they don’t have as many.
Have you heard many animal expressions in South America? Maybe there just aren’t as many animal sayings in general.
Jessica of HolaYessica recently posted…Learning Spanish with Fun Cat Expressions
Love the cat encerrado! 🙂
Linda recently posted…Latvia. Home of the Homophobe.
Haha thanks! He is so stupid sometimes, it took him AGES to figure out how to get his head back out again!
Jessica of HolaYessica recently posted…Learning Spanish with Fun Cat Expressions
Haha! I agree with the other commenters–kitty mania is the way to go for language learning!
I had never heard of “Estar como gato panza arriba,” but I’m going to be adding that to my vocab asap 🙂
I think that might be my favorite new one, it’s just so perfect. My cats are usually pretty happy when they’re panza arriba!
Jessica of HolaYessica recently posted…Barcelona’s Plaça Reial
Lol great post! We’re heading through South America in May, so anything involving a cat I’m now set with expressions for!
Megan @ Mapping Megan recently posted…Make Money While Traveling The World. Start A Blog.
Ooh so jealous! South America…sigh haha. Have a great trip!
Jessica of HolaYessica recently posted…Barcelona’s Plaça Reial
Oh my gosh, your kitties are so cute! I am not really a cat person but I will admit to watching way too many cat videos on Youtube. Also the only cat missing from this video is Maru, I could watch Maru videos all day long jumping in and out of boxes.
I didn’t know most of these so I learned something new! And you kind of inspired me to write a post about French cat expressions! I won’t do it but now I have all these hilarious expressions now running in my head in French about cats. Off to Cute Overload for more cat videos…
Hehe thanks! I’m a tiny bit cat-obsessed, and I could happily snap pics of my cats and look at Maru videos all day.
If French is anything like Spanish, I bet there are tons of odd expressions involving cats and other animals. They’re definitely my favorite way to pick up new vocabulary because they’re so bizarre-sounding to us a lot of the time.
Love this! I left my 14 pound kitty with my parents when we moved to China and I miss her every day. But she’s actually not the biggest cat I’ve ever had. When I was a kid, our orange tabby was 20 pounds! We called him cupcake 🙂
Heather recently posted…International Spy Museum: Celebrating 50 Years of James Bond
20 pounds?? That’s even bigger than my grey beast of a cat! Haha big cats are so funny.
Hey Jess
I can cat-agorically say that I’ve never read a blog post like that! Some interesting examples, which I’ll definitely attempt to drop into conversation next time I’m speaking Spanish in the presence of a cat. You reckon you’ll be a crazy cat lady one day?
What happened to your URL by the way? Re-branding yourself?
A classical ” El gato escaldado del agua fría huye” . Explanation: When you’ ve had a bad experience you don’t want to try it again. We use the example of cats and water because they usually don’t like to take a bath
That is very true, I had to give my cat a bath once (he played in the fireplace and came out covered in soot) and it was a traumatic experience for both of us! 😀
Hilarious! My blog partner is trying to learn Spanish in 90 days at the moment for his next adventure, I will definitely be sharing this with him. Thankyou Jessica.
Thanks to you too, Russel! Wow, Spanish in 90 days – it sounds like a challenge, but it can be done! Good luck to your partner. 😀
So cute!!! 🙂 About #3, there is a similar expression in French: “la nuit tous les chats sont gris” (at night all cats are grey).
Oh that’s interesting! I didn’t know that, but I bet the romance languages have a lot of similar expressions.
Hola Jessica,
Soy Covadonga la mamá de Rubén. Me ha gustado mucho la colección de refranes y gatos. Ya me ha dicho Rubén que los gatos de las fotos son tuyos.
Un saludo.
Muchas gracias por el comentario! Sí, las fotos de los gatos son de mis dos gatos gorditos en California. Les echo mucho de menos cuando estoy aquí! 🙂
Ha-ha! That’s really nice! Really really nice 😉