/busˌkaɾle ˌtɾes ˌpjes al ˈɡato/ lit. ‘look for three feet on the cat’
Spanish idiom, colloquial. To argue about tiny details that don’t matter.
Draft Not yet checked by a native Spanish speaker.
How do people use Buscarle tres pies al gato
?
Colloquial and very common, mostly as a complaint about someone who makes a simple thing complicated or keeps finding problems that aren’t there. It turns up most often as a negative command: “no le busques tres pies al gato”. The “le” stays even though “al gato” is already there, which is normal Spanish doubling.
Also said buscarle cinco pies al gato, buscarle la quinta pata al gato
Buscarle tres pies al gato
in real sentences
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No le busques tres pies al gato.
Don’t go looking for problems that aren’t there.
Tatoeba, sentence by U2FS, CC BY 2.0 FR
Where does Buscarle tres pies al gato
come from?
The Real Academia dictionary lists it as “buscarle tres, o cinco, pies al gato” (English Wiktionary links that entry), and Spanish Wiktionary also has “buscarle la quinta pata al gato”, looking for the cat’s fifth leg. The five-legged version makes obvious sense: you’re hunting for something that doesn’t exist. Why three also works, when every cat has at least three feet, nobody in my sources explains. English Wiktionary quotes it from José Ángel Mañas’s novel Historias del Kronen.
Mistakes learners make with Buscarle tres pies al gato
Using it as praise for being thorough. It always means the effort is pointless or annoying, so you wouldn’t say a careful proofreader “le busca tres pies al gato” unless you were complaining about them.
Other Spanish idioms like Buscarle tres pies al gato
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?
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