Locuciones, colocaciones and refranes: the prefabricated half of native Spanish
Native speakers do not build every sentence from scratch. A large part of any language is prefabricated: pairs of words that simply go together, fixed expressions whose meaning is not the sum of their parts, and proverbs that arrive whole. Estimates for Spanish put the prefabricated share of ordinary speech at something like a third.
This is why a learner can have flawless grammar and still sound translated. You said hacer una decisión because English makes decisions; Spanish takes them. Nothing was ungrammatical. It was simply not the pairing Spanish uses.
Phraseology comes in four kinds, and they behave differently. Know which kind you are looking at and you know how to learn it.
Arbitrary but obligatory combinations. There is no rule; there is only what Spanish does.
| Spanish | English | The trap |
|---|---|---|
| tomar una decisión | to make a decision | *hacer una decisión |
| cometer un error | to make a mistake | *hacer un error |
| prestar atención | to pay attention | *pagar atención |
| hacer caso (a) | to take notice of, to heed | — |
| dar un paseo | to take a walk | *tomar un paseo |
| correr un riesgo | to run/take a risk | — |
| guardar silencio | to keep quiet | — |
| poner en marcha | to set in motion, launch | — |
| plantear un problema | to raise an issue | — |
| sacar conclusiones | to draw conclusions | — |
| entablar una conversación | to strike up a conversation | — |
| surtir efecto | to take effect | — |
| cumplir una condena | to serve a sentence | — |
| asumir la responsabilidad | to take responsibility | — |
Adjective–noun pairings are just as fixed, and using the right one is a strong C1 signal:
| Collocation | Meaning |
|---|---|
| un error garrafal | a howler of a mistake |
| un hambre canina | a ravenous hunger |
| lluvia torrencial | torrential rain |
| un rotundo éxito | a resounding success |
| un sueño profundo | a deep sleep |
| una fe ciega | blind faith |
| un frío glacial | a bitter cold |
| Idiom | Literally | Means |
|---|---|---|
| meter la pata | to put the paw in | to put your foot in it |
| dar en el clavo | to hit the nail | to be exactly right |
| echar una mano | to throw a hand | to lend a hand |
| estar en las nubes | to be in the clouds | to have your head in the clouds |
| ponerse las pilas | to put your batteries in | to get your act together |
| irse por las ramas | to go off along the branches | to beat about the bush |
| no tener pelos en la lengua | to have no hairs on the tongue | to be blunt, to speak your mind |
| hacer la vista gorda | to make the fat gaze | to turn a blind eye |
| costar un ojo de la cara | to cost an eye from the face | to cost a fortune |
| dar gato por liebre | to give cat for hare | to swindle, to pass off a fake |
| tirar la toalla | to throw the towel | to give up |
| ser pan comido | to be eaten bread | to be a piece of cake |
| estar hecho polvo | to be made dust | to be shattered, wiped out |
| tomar el pelo | to take the hair | to pull someone's leg |
| buscarle tres pies al gato | to look for three feet on the cat | to overcomplicate things |
| estar como una cabra | to be like a goat | to be nuts |
| quedarse de piedra | to be left as stone | to be stunned |
| Phrase | Meaning |
|---|---|
| a regañadientes | reluctantly, grudgingly |
| a bombo y platillo | with great fanfare |
| sin ton ni son | for no rhyme or reason |
| a duras penas | barely, with great difficulty |
| en un abrir y cerrar de ojos | in the blink of an eye |
| de buenas a primeras | out of the blue |
| contra viento y marea | come hell or high water |
| el chivo expiatorio | the scapegoat |
| la gota que colma el vaso | the last straw |
| el talón de Aquiles | the Achilles heel |
| una espada de Damocles | a sword of Damocles |
Spanish has thousands of proverbs and a living tradition of using them. They are built for memory: rhyme, rhythm, parallel halves, and almost always an elided verb.
| Refrán | Meaning |
|---|---|
| A quien madruga, Dios le ayuda. | The early bird catches the worm. |
| Más vale pájaro en mano que ciento volando. | A bird in the hand… |
| En boca cerrada no entran moscas. | Say nothing and you can't say the wrong thing. |
| No por mucho madrugar amanece más temprano. | Rushing won't make it happen sooner. |
| Más vale tarde que nunca. | Better late than never. |
| Quien mucho abarca, poco aprieta. | Bite off more than you can chew and you'll do none of it well. |
| Del dicho al hecho hay mucho trecho. | Easier said than done. |
| A caballo regalado no le mires el diente. | Don't look a gift horse in the mouth. |
| Dime con quién andas y te diré quién eres. | You're known by the company you keep. |
| No hay mal que por bien no venga. | Every cloud has a silver lining. |
| Ojos que no ven, corazón que no siente. | What the eye doesn't see, the heart doesn't grieve over. |
| Cría cuervos y te sacarán los ojos. | Be good to the ungrateful and they'll turn on you. |
Fixed responses to fixed situations. Not knowing them leaves a silence a native would have filled automatically.
| Situation | You say |
|---|---|
| Someone is about to eat | ¡Que aproveche! (Sp.) / ¡Buen provecho! (LatAm) |
| Someone is going to bed | ¡Que descanses! |
| Someone sneezes | ¡Jesús! (Sp.) / ¡Salud! |
| Someone is ill | ¡Que te mejores! |
| Congratulating | ¡Enhorabuena! (Sp.) / ¡Felicidades! |
| A bereavement | Te acompaño en el sentimiento. / Mi más sentido pésame. |
| Wishing luck | ¡Suerte! / ¡Mucha mierda! (theatre) |
| Leaving someone to their work | Que te cunda. / ¡Ánimo! |
| Someone thanks you | De nada. / No hay de qué. / Faltaría más. |
Notice the grammar: most are elliptical subjunctives — [Espero] que aproveche, [Ojalá] que te mejores. Lesson 1's mood, frozen into social ritual.
That completes C1. You have the grammar, the connective machinery, the map of varieties, the pragmatics and the prefabricated layer. C2 begins in Lesson 13 by going underneath the vocabulary itself — into where Spanish words come from, and how knowing that lets you read a word you have never seen before.