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LEARNING SPANISH

Spanish Word of The Day: ‘Pata’

"Pata" may be a short word but it has plenty of uses in everyday Spanish, from talking about animals, bad luck or putting your foot in it.

Spanish Word of The Day: 'Pata'
The standard meaning of 'pata' is animal leg, but there are lots more uses. Photo: Filip Saternus/Unsplash

Why do I need to know this word?

Well, aside from being the word in Spanish for animal leg or paw as well as the noun for a female duck, pata is used in quite a few common Spanish expressions.

There’s meter la pata, which you may have guessed means to put one’s foot in it.

There’s also a pata which is a colloquial word of saying on foot, so ir a pata is to go somewhere on foot, or if you say salir/irse por patas it means you to scram or run off quickly.

Another handy expression with pata is estirar la pata, which in the most literal sense means to stretch one’s leg but actually means to die, similar to saying to kick the bucket or to bite the dust in English.

If you’ve got mala pata, it means you have bad or rotten luck.

If something is patas arriba it’s a mess.

And last but not least, there’s de pata negra in reference to the delicious Iberian jamón, which is used to refer to something which is of excellent quality or traditionally Spanish.

When should I use pata and all these expressions?

Pata is a very colloquial way to refer to a human leg, so don’t use it if you visit your podiatrist.

The same goes for all the expressions mentioned above with pata – they’re fairly colloquial so will sound best when used with friends and people you can let your guard down with.

Then again, there are expressions like saltar a la pata coja (to jump on one foot), patas de gallo (crow’s feet) or la pata de un mueble (the leg of a piece of furniture) in which pata is the correct word to use.

Can you give me some examples?

Mi perro se ha hecho daño en una pata.

My dog has hurt one of its paws.

Acaba de meter la pata, ha insultado a la mujer de mi jefe.

He just put his foot in it, he insulted my boss’s wife.

Tuvimos que volver a casa a pata porque ya no había autobuses.

We had to return on foot as there weren’t any more buses.

El ladrón salió por patas cuando vió al policía.

The thief scrammed when he saw the police officer.

¡Qué mala pata! Ya no quedan entradas.

What rotten luck! There aren’t any more tickets left.

Está toda la familia esperando que el viejo estire la pata para hacerse con la herencia.

The whole family is waiting for the old man to kick the bucket so they can get their hands on the inheritance.

Tienes la habitación patas arriba. ¡Recógela!

Your room is an absolute mess, clear it up!

El fisioterapeuta me hizo saltar a la pata coja.

The physiotherapist made me jump on one foot.
 

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SPANISH WORD OF THE DAY

Spanish Expression of the Day: A ver

Most conversations in Spain are likely to include ‘a ver’ at some point. So what meanings does this handy expression have?

Spanish Expression of the Day: A ver

A ver, literally meaning ‘to see’, serves two main purposes in Spanish. 

Firstly, it can express expectation or interest in knowing or seeing something, like ‘let’s see’ in English. 

So you might say ¿a ver? in an interrogative manner in anticipation while opening a letter or birthday present, before looking through some binoculars or as you peer over a wall to see what’s happening.

Secondly, a ver can also be used to get the attention of another person before saying something to them, asking them a question or giving them an order, such as saying ‘right then’, ‘now’, ‘I mean’, ‘the thing is’ or ‘OK’ in English.

It’s an extremely common interjection in Spanish, spliced into conversation as often as es que, o sea or en plan when Spaniards try to express themselves.

A ver used in the two above senses goes at the start of the sentence, and in the case of a ver as in ‘let’s see’ it can stand on its own without having to add any extra information.

A ver isn’t colloquial but you usually only encounter its use in spoken Spanish and not written down.

That may explain why many Spaniards wrongly assume that a ver is written haber, the infinitive ‘to have’ form in Spanish. They’re pronounced exactly the same, so it’s somewhat understandable.

A ver can also be used in different Spanish sentence constructions, as in vamos a ver la película, ‘we’re going to see the film’ or a ver si hay suerte, ‘let’s see if we get lucky’ or ‘let’s hope we get lucky’.

All in all, adding a ver to your spoken Spanish is likely to make you sound more native, and getting its usage right isn’t too difficult overall.

Examples:

– ¡Mira! Esta noche hay luna llena.

– ¿A ver?

– Look! There’s a full moon tonight!

– Let’s see?

¡A ver si España gana la Eurocopa!

¡Let’s hope Spain wins the Euro!

¡A ver! ¡Basta ya de tonterías!

Right! Enough of this nonsense!

¡A ver, niños! ¿Cuántas patas tiene una araña?

Now, children! How many legs does a spider have?

A ver, es una persona muy complicada.

The thing is, he’s a very complicated person.

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