Spanish Word of the Day
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
gato, noun
cat
cat
In English there are many colorful phrases referring to cats, such as ‘let the cat out of the bag’, and ‘to play cat and mouse with somebody’. Today we’re looking at a couple of phrases in which gato - cat - appears.
El debate se transmite muy tarde, y lo ven cuatro gatos.
The debate is broadcast very late and hardly anyone watches it.
When Spanish-speakers want to stress how very few people are involved in something, they use the phrase cuatro gatos. Here’s another example:
No somos más que cuatro gatos en la oficina.
There’s only a handful of us in the office.
The second phrase is dar gato por liebre - to swindle or to con somebody. Word for word it means ‘to give cat for hare’, and refers to people in the past selling cat meat as the more highly prized hare meat.
Te dieron gato por liebre.
You’ve been swindled.
Al ministro le dieron gato por liebre en los documentos.
They pulled the wool over the minister’s eyes in the documents.
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