Purpose

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to recognize and use common Spanish idiomatic expressions that do not translate literally from English.

Lesson Explanation

Common idioms built on already-familiar verbs: Tener ganas de + infinitive — to feel like doing something: Tengo ganas de bailar. (I feel like dancing.) Echar de menos — to miss someone/something: Te echo de menos. (I miss you.)

Costar trabajo — to be difficult: Me cuesta trabajo entender esto. (I find this hard to understand.) Dar la lata — to be annoying (literally “to give the can”): Mi hermano me da la lata. (My brother annoys me.) Estar en las nubes — to be daydreaming: Estás en las nubes. (You’re daydreaming.)

As previewed in Part 5, Lesson 5’s discussion of “gustar”-type verbs: doler (to hurt) follows the exact same inverted logic: Me duele la cabeza. (My head hurts — literally “the head pains me.”) Me duelen los pies. (My feet hurt — plural agreement, exactly like “gustar.”)

A genuinely common structure worth knowing beyond single idioms: tener combines with several nouns where English uses “to be” plus an adjective, already introduced in Part 3, Lesson 1: tener hambre, tener sed, tener miedo, tener razón (to be hungry, thirsty, afraid, right). Saying “Estoy hambre” instead of “Tengo hambre” is a genuinely common learner error — this pattern is worth memorizing as a set, not derived from any single rule already covered.

Practice Questions