ES Spanish · informal · 4 of 6
meter la pata
rueful, or teasing
Word by word
put in · the · paw / leg
Idiomatic sense
To put one's foot in it. A social mistake, a wrong question, a clumsy move. It can also be a practical blunder. The feeling afterward is often embarrassment. The phrase itself names the mistake, not the wish to disappear.
Informal. It admits fault or points it out. It is not a phrase for a crime.
Examples
Metí la pata al preguntar por su ex.
I put my foot in it by asking about their ex.
Cada vez que habla, mete la pata.
Every time they open their mouth, they put their foot in it.
Equivalents
Marks say how far the other phrase travels with this one. How to read them.
- near
to put one's foot in it
Same social blunder. English says foot. Spanish says pata, the animal leg or paw, which makes the clumsiness a shade more comic.
- near
mettre les pieds dans le plat
To put one's feet in the dish. A blunder in company, often by saying the inconvenient true thing.
- near
ins Fettnäpfchen treten
To step in the little bowl of fat. The classic German social blunder.
- partial
The wish to vanish after the mistake. Meter la pata is the mistake. One often follows the other.
Notes
Pata is an animal's leg, or a rough word for a person's. That roughness is part of the tone. A translation that says only "to make a mistake" is true and thin. The English foot idiom is the better package.
Sources
- Standard informal idiom. Wording is original.