📖LearnModule 14 · Lesson 8 of 30Proficient User · CEFR C2, continuedUnit 2 · Las expresiones fijas
La mesa
Module 14 of the free Spanish course (CEFR C2, continued), lesson 8 of 30: Food gives Spanish some of its best idioms. On this page: 9 words with their genders and respellings, the rule, a watch-out line and the audio — the study notes behind the workbook's QR.
The words
Spanish
English
Say it
ser pan comido
to be a piece of cake
sehr pahn koh-MEE-doh
me importa un pepino
I could not care less
meh eem-POHR-tah oon peh-PEE-noh
dar la vuelta a la tortilla
to turn the tables
dar lah BWEHL-tah ah lah tohr-TEE-yah
pagar los platos rotos
to take the blame
pah-GAR lohs PLAH-tohs RROH-tohs
estar hecho un flan
to be a bundle of nerves
ehs-TAR EH-choh oon flahn
el plato
the dish
ehl PLAH-toh
la tortilla
the tortilla (or omelet)
lah tohr-TEE-yah
antiguo
old (long-standing)
ahn-TEE-gwoh
la explicación que falta
the missing explanation
lah ehks-plee-kah-SYOHN keh FAHL-tah
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
Food gives Spanish some of its best idioms. Ser pan comido (to be a piece of cake), importar un pepino (not to matter a bit), dar la vuelta a la tortilla (to turn the tables), pagar los platos rotos (to take the blame).
Y también · And also
Estar hecho un flan means to be a bundle of nerves, for reasons nobody agrees on. When an expression has no explanation, that is a sign it is genuinely old and genuinely fixed.
Ojo · Watch out
me importa un pepino is I could not care less — the cucumber is the point, and un pimiento or un bledo do the same job. la tortilla is an omelet in Spain and a flatbread in Mexico; the idiom means the Spanish one.
Do it now — on paper
Say all 9 words aloud twice from the respelling, then once from the Spanish spelling alone — begin with ser pan comido.
Copy every word with its accents on paper; then cover the English column and write each meaning back from the Spanish.
Write two sentences of your own that get the watch-out line right, then the two practice pages of workbook lesson 8 in Module 14 are the written half of this page.
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.