/ˌʝwebe a ˈkantaɾos/ lit. ‘it’s raining by the pitcher’
Spanish idiom, everyday. It is raining very heavily.
Draft Not yet checked by a native Spanish speaker.
How do people use Llueve a cántaros
?
Everyday Spanish, fine with anyone from your boss to your grandmother, and understood everywhere Spanish is spoken. Llover only works without a subject, so you just conjugate it: “llueve a cántaros”, “está lloviendo a cántaros”, “llovía a cántaros”. “Se puso a llover a cántaros” is the usual way to say it suddenly started pouring.
Also said está lloviendo a cántaros, llover a cántaros
Llueve a cántaros
in real sentences
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Está lloviendo a cántaros.
It’s raining cats and dogs.
Tatoeba, sentence by Shishir, translation by Dorenda, CC BY 2.0 FR
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Se puso a llover a cántaros.
It started to rain in torrents.
Tatoeba, sentence by marcelostockle, translation by Thryth, CC BY 2.0 FR
Where does Llueve a cántaros
come from?
The picture is simple: rain coming down as if someone were emptying big clay water jugs (cántaros) over you. Cántaro goes back to Latin cantharus and Greek kántharos, a drinking vessel. Portuguese has the same image (chover a cântaros), according to English Wiktionary. No dated first use is recorded, so nobody can say how old it is.
Mistakes learners make with Llueve a cántaros
Dropping the “a”. “Llueve cántaros” sounds broken; the “a” is what turns the jugs into a way of raining. Translating “cats and dogs” word for word gets you blank looks.
Other Spanish idioms like Llueve a cántaros
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