Coffee Break Spanish - Five Spanish idioms every beginner should know

Episode Date: August 3, 2026

Spanish idioms are a great way to make your conversations sound more natural from the very beginning. In this episode, Anabel introduces five beginner-friendly expressions you'll hear in everyday Spanish:tenerlo en la punta de la lenguacostar un ojo de la cara (or un riñón)echar una manocomerse la cabezatrabajar codo con codoYou'll learn what they mean, when native speakers use them, and how to start using these practical idioms with confidence in your own Spanish.➡️ Click here to watch the video version of this episode.➡️ Love learning in short bursts? Our free weekly newsletter is packed with tips just like these: https://coffeebreaklanguages.kit.com/newsletter Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to Coffee Break Spanish. I'm Annabelle and I'm sorry this time I want to bring you five beginner-friendly idioms to start using in your daily conversations. These five idioms are beginner-friendly because they can be used using A1 level grammar and also the vocabulary is covered in the beginner levels.

Also, I made sure they are useful so you can use them every day or as much as possible. However, if you are an intermediate level learner, no te preoccupies because you can still use them. Before we start, I would like to say that this is the podcast version of a video episode that you can watch for free on YouTube. The link is in the description or you can simply go to our YouTube channel and you will find it there. Genial, well,

Dichael, well, Dichael, the first one is to work Codo-con-Codo, which literally means to work elbow to elbow, and it's used to mean to work side-by-side.

Let's see a example. My friend and I work co-cdo-code. My friend and I work side-by-side. As you can see, we simply conjugate the very Trav'r-Trava-Hawr. Super-facil. The next idiom is

Ech'er a man and it literally means to throw a hand but it actually means to lend a hand or simply to help. A continuation, we'll be in context. If you want, I can lend a hand to your brother. Here we can see a Echar one man to lend someone a hand. And just like in English, we can use an indirect object pronoun and say, If you want, I can lend him a hand. Perfecto, beaamos the next idiom. For the next idiom, I want you to think about the last time you couldn't remember someone's name.

You know exactly who the person is and you definitely know their name, but you just can't recall it. What do we say in this situation in English? That's right. We could say something like, oh, I have it on the tip of my tongue. And just like in English, we could use that idiom in Spanish when we want to express that type of frustration. Hi, lo take in the punt of the language. Here we are using to tener algo in the the point of the language. The thing is that we are normally going to use Tener in the present tense, so, Tengo, I have. Something more important, though, is that we are going to use the pronoun

lo instead of something, which means that instead of saying, Tengu algo in the punta of the language, normally we are going to say, lo tingo in the punta of the language. I have it. on the tip of my tongue. This means that if you are not familiar yet with law and the rest of direct object pronouns, you can still use it if you learn it as a set phrase. Hi, it will buy you time to think in a speaking exam, for example, and at the same time you will sound more natural and fluent. So, it's perfect. Fantastic, well, now we'll see the next modi-

What is costar an ojo de la car? Can you guess what it means? Once again, it's very similar to an English idiom, although not exactly the same. It means to cost an arm and a leg. Let's see it in context. No boy to buy the pantalones because cost an ojo de la car. I'm not going to buy the trousers because they cost an arm and a leg.

Notice that we say Un Ojo de la Cara and not simply an ojo. The whole phrase is Un Ojo de la cara, so be careful. Now, if your vocabulary range is a little higher,

I have other versions of this idiom for you. The first one is costar a rignon. One rignon is a kidney, so it literally means to cost a kidney. The other

alternative, which is also very useful if you want to avoid the regular conjugation of the verb costar is changing costar to valer, valer, valer, un ojo de la car or valer un rignon. All of these options are interchangeable, so choose your favorite one. Genial, well, yeah we're yet yet to last modismo. And our fifth one is one of my personal favorites. And it has many, many, many. many, many variations. But the most common one is comerse la Cabeza.

The tricky part here is that we use Comer in its reflexive form because what we are actually saying is that you are eating your own head. And do you know what that means? It means to overthink.

Vemos an example. Ah, no te preoccupies. No te comas more the cabza. Don't worry, stop overthinking it. We could say this to a friend or family member who is overthinking a situation and we want them to stop worrying so much. Notice the comas, the reflexive form of the verb,

comer, used in this idiom. I know the reflexive pronoun is easy to forget, but here it's essential, so please don't forget it. Also, I'm aware that of the five idioms, this is probably the trickiest one. But I think your Spanish-speaking friends will love it. So, much animo using it. Estupendo.

Well, that is all for today. And you would like to receive free mini lessons every week straight to your inbox. Go to coffeebreaklanguages.com slash Spanish and sign up for our newsletter. Muchisimas. Thank you, we're always. And we'll see soon.

Adios. been listening to a coffee break language's production for the radiolingo network copyright 2026 radiolingua limited recording copyright 2026 radio lingua limited all rights reserved