“Fish” (pez y pescado) you may know. In English we only have one word – we like to keep things simple.
This article focuses on the idioms (modismos) that use “fish”. Often “fish” is used for “person”, as in “tipo” and “tío” in Spanish. Consider these:
- I have other fish to fry (tengo cosas más importantes que hacer). Here you are saying that you have more important things to do.
- He is like a fish out of water (esta como pez fuera del agua). He is not comfortable or looks odd in a situation.
- Mr. Corbyn is an odd fish (= bicho raro). Here “fish” means person.
- Mr. Morales is a big fish (un pez gordo) in his company. A similar idiom is “top dog”.
- Mr. Trump is a cold fish (un tipo frio).
Another use is similar to “pescar”, to fish:
- May, the British Prime Minister, is fishing in trouble waters (…esta pescando en río revuelto).
The adjective is “fishy” meaning suspicious or strange. Things can sound “fishy” as in “it sounds fishy to me” (me huele a chamusquina). For a person we can say:
- There is something fishy about Mr. Pujol (hay algo en Señor Pujol que resuelta sospechoso).
