English people like to drink tea (té), and sometimes, in the afternoons for a special occasion, they will have “afternoon tea”, meaning tea and some fancy (elaborada) cakes.
Here our interest is with the idioms (modismos) that use the word tea. Examine the following.
- Going to rock concerts is not my “cup of tea”. This means that I do not like doing such things. Perhaps in Spanish you might say “no es mi preferencia”.
- Mr. Morales would not vote for Podemos “for all the tea in China” (por nada del mundo). This means that he would not vote for Podemos under any circumstances. Another similar expression is “not in a million years”.
- Sometimes there are “storms in a teacup”, problems that are much exaggerated. Perhaps in Spanish you might say “una tormenta o una tempestad en una vaso de agua”.
