When a "cara" is not a "face"
Go ahead. Look in the dictionary. "Cara" means "face". I agree.
But there's one special usage of the word which seems to be more commonly used in Spanish than its English equivalents. The reason I say that is I notice that I say and/or hear the "cara" expressions in Spanish much more than I hear the "nerve" equivalents in English. Maybe it's just a subjective impression, or perhaps Spanish speakers behave worse than their English speaking counterparts. (Said jokingly, in case anyone is wondering).
Here are some of the "cara" expressions with their English equivalents:
1. ¡Pepe tiene mucha cara! - Pepe's got a lot of nerve.
2. ¡Qué cara tiene Pepe! - Pepe's got a lot of nerve.
3. ¡Pepe es/tiene una cara dura! - Pepe's got a lot of nerve.
I think the "lot of nerve" expression is common to both US and UK speakers. A purely UK translation of the above sentences would be "Pepe's a cheeky swine".
Anyway, this post is about learning Spanish and the point is that you will need to know this type of "cara" expression in Spanish since it's very commonly used.
Brad
