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What does this mean in Spanish?


Travis

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I love the "What does this mean in English?" thread, but it seems to have worn itself out. So...

The other day I was in an intercambio. The teacher/facilitator is Mexican, but has spent a good deal of time in the US and has almost perfect US/California English. We were talking about idiomatic expressions, and out came:

"Go with the flow."

None of us could come up with a good way to communicate the idea in Spanish. But I gotta think the same idea exists in Mexican culture. We talked about "Sigue la corriente", but if I understand that correctly, it's used more like how we might say "just humor her" or "play along". Sometimes it would work, but not always, depending on context. Then a few days later, I thought how in some contexts, "Ni modo" might be used, but ni modo is so much bigger than that.

Anybody have a good way to communicate "go with the flow" in Spanish?

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I am becoming convinced that there is no real equivalent in Spanish, and that the phrase you would use depends on the context and situation. In English, "Go with the flow" is amazingly versatile, and could be used in any of the following situations.

1. You're in a government office and the bureaucrat in front of you insists that you provide another document even though you know it's not necessary and isn't part of the official requisitos. You decide it's not worth the fight, and just go with the flow.

2. cbviajero's example above. When someone you know is saying something that isn't true and you know it, but rather than contradicting, you just go with the flow.

3. You're with a group of friends, and you want everybody to go play futbol, but everybody else wants to go to a bar, so you just go with the flow.

Dejarse llevar is another translation that we talked about today and comes close, but only applies to certain situations, I think.

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"Quise ahogar mis penas en el licor pero las condenadas aprendieron a nadar"

..... Frida Kahlo

I wanted to drown my sorrows in the liquor but the bad words they learn how to swim.

"I wanted to drown my sorrows in liquor, but the damned things learned how to swim." 'Las condenadas' refers back to 'penas'...it doesn't mean bad words.

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