A nice example of an expression which can’t be translated literally. The verb “arrimar” means “to move/bring … closer” in, for example, a sentence like this:
El arrimó el sillón a la pared = He pushed/moved the armchair up against the wall
“hombro” means “shoulder” so the expression “arrimar el hombro” should mean “move a shoulder”, but no, it’s real translation is “to lend a hand” or just “help”.
I’ve chosen this particular expression because here in Spain we’ve been forced to hear the expression several times a week for the past six years since the socialist government won the elections. They have an insidious strategy: they decide to introduce a new law or do away with an old one and when the opposition party protests, they say “Estamos intentando salvar/modernizar/cambiar el país y la oposición se niega a arrimar el hombro” meaning “We’re trying to save/modernize/change the country and the opposition party refuses to lend a hand”. They say this as if the opposition were morally obliged to support anything they propose instead of doing what the opposition is supposed to do: oppose.
Sorry to go off on a small tangent, but the expression becomes quite tiresome when used this way. Hopefully you will find better uses for it.
Brad
Tags: learn spanish, spanish idioms
Tags: learn spanish, spanish idioms
October 26th, 2009 at 7:28 pm
Hola Brad, I want to congratulate you for your blog.
I am writting to you to tell about the expression “lend a hand” that in south america we usually say “echar una mano” for example you can say echame una mano when you need help to do something.
apologizes for the errors in writing but I am still learning English
thanks