Katya in Jacksonville, Florida, says her German-speaking parents think that when someone expresses a wish, it’s hilarious to respond with the German saying Wenn Oma Räder hätte, wäre sie ein Omnibus, which means “If Grandma had wheels, she’d be a bus.” Katya likens that saying to one she says she’s also heard: If I had ham, I’d make a ham and cheese sandwich if I had cheese. Versions of the German saying appear in Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, and Yiddish, among others. One Spanish version translates as “If my aunt, instead of skirts had wheels, she wouldn’t be my aunt, she’d be a bicycle.” Another German version from 1876 features a wheeled aunt instead of a grandmother: Wenn die Tante Räder hätte, wär’s ein Omnibus. Although the vehicle changes in various versions around the world, it’s usually a female with the wheels, whether grandmother, aunt, or mother-in-law. This is part of a complete episode.
Why do some Spanish speakers use adaptations of certain English terms when there’s already a perfectly good word for the same thing in Spanish? Sometimes the result is called “Spanglish.” For example, Spanish cuentas means “bills,”...
We’ve previously discussed when pigs fly and other idioms expressing profound skepticism that something will occur. That prompted an email from Guillermo in Tucson, Arizona, who shared a Spanish phrase that conveys a similar idea: cuando la...
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