/ˈkomo ˈpeθ ˈfweɾa del ˈaɡwa/ lit. ‘like a fish out of the water’
Spanish idiom, everyday. Someone who feels uncomfortable and out of place in unfamiliar surroundings.
Draft Not yet checked by a native Spanish speaker.
How do people use Como pez fuera del agua
?
Everyday Spanish, polite in any setting. It usually comes after “sentirse” or “estar”: “me sentía como pez fuera del agua” (I felt like a fish out of water). The article is optional: “como un pez fuera del agua” is just as common.
Also said como un pez fuera del agua
Como pez fuera del agua
in real sentences
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Tom se sentía como un pez fuera del agua.
Tom felt like a fish out of water.
Tatoeba, sentence by marcelostockle, translation by CK, CC BY 2.0 FR
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Él es, por así decirlo, como un pez fuera del agua.
He’s like a fish out of water, so to speak.
Tatoeba, sentence by tatoerique, CC BY 2.0 FR
Where does Como pez fuera del agua
come from?
No one knows when Spanish started using it. In English, Wiktionary cites the Oxford English Dictionary for Chaucer’s “fissh that is waterlees” (around 1405) and “fish out of the water” from 1585. Spanish also has the opposite picture, “como pez en el agua”, which Spanish Wiktionary quotes from 1983.
Mistakes learners make with Como pez fuera del agua
Mixing it up with its opposite, “como pez en el agua” (like a fish in water), which means you feel completely at home.
Spot a mistake in Como pez fuera del agua
?
Send a correction, or a sentence you’d actually say with it. Everything is read before anything on this page changes.