📖LearnModule 14 · Lesson 6 of 30Proficient User · CEFR C2, continuedUnit 2 · Las expresiones fijas
El cuerpo en las expresiones
Module 14 of the free Spanish course (CEFR C2, continued), lesson 6 of 30: Spanish idiom lives in the body. On this page: 9 words with their genders and respellings, the rule, a watch-out line, the conjugation table and the audio — the study notes behind the workbook's QR.
The words
Spanish
English
Say it
tener mucha mano
to have influence
teh-NEHR MOO-chah MAH-noh
costar un ojo de la cara
to cost a fortune
kohs-TAR oon OH-hoh deh lah KAH-rah
no dar un palo al agua
to be bone idle
noh dar oon PAH-loh ahl AH-gwah
meter la pata
to put your foot in it
meh-TEHR lah PAH-tah
el ojo
the eye
ehl OH-hoh
costar
to cost
kohs-TAR
en bloque
as a whole
ehn BLOH-keh
adivinar el sentido
to work out the meaning
ah-dee-bee-NAR ehl sehn-TEE-doh
ellos cuestan demasiado
they cost too much
EH-yohs KWEHS-tahn deh-mah-SYAH-doh
Respellings follow the course’s say-it key; the stressed syllable is in capitals. Print this lesson’s flashcards (PDF) — the words on the front, the English and respelling on the back.
La regla · The rule
Spanish idiom lives in the body. Tener mucha mano (to have influence), costar un ojo de la cara (to cost a fortune), no dar un palo al agua (to be bone idle), meter la pata (to put your foot in it).
Y también · And also
None of them can be worked out from the words, and all of them are printed in the dictionary as fixed expressions. Learn them whole, or not at all.
Ojo · Watch out
A fixed expression is fixed in every word: costar un ojo de la cara, never costar los ojos. Change the article and the idiom becomes a sentence about eyes. costar changes o to ue: cuesta, cuestan.
costar, presente — the table
yo cuesto · tú cuestas · él/ella/usted cuesta · nosotros costamos · ustedes cuestan · ellos/ellas cuestan
Do it now — on paper
Say all 9 words aloud twice from the respelling, then once from the Spanish spelling alone — begin with tener mucha mano.
Copy every word with its accents on paper; then cover the English column and write each meaning back from the Spanish.
Write out costar, presente in full from memory, every person, and check each form against the table above.
This free course is the reading half. The writing half — write-in lessons, daily practice pages with built-in review, self-checks and a full answer key — is the companion workbook series, The Spanish Ladder: one workbook per module, fifteen in all, released band by band with the Basic band (Modules 1–5) first.
Keep these words
Turn this lesson’s words into flashcards, then space your reviews — the two habits the research behind our study guides backs hardest.