“Lemon” (limón) you will know. You may have made the drink “lemonade” at home.
Here our interest is with the expressions using lemon. The word is often used for negative situations. Examine these:
- “I felt like a lemon”. This means that you felt stupid. Perhaps in Spanish you might say “me sentí como un auténtico imbécil”.
- “Do me a lemon” is an expression that is similar to “you must be joking” or that something is nonsense.
- Mr. Sanchez´s response to the press was a lemon. This means that what Mr. Sanchez said was unsatisfactory.
- You lemon! ¡Bobo!
There is a proverbial phrase: “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade”. This means that when things are very difficult you should make the most of the difficulties and do something positive. Use this phrase to give encouragement.
