¿Cómo se dice "big shoes to fill" en español?
Is there a Spanish equivalent to, "big shoes to fill"?
I looked in the phrasebook and found, "fill someone's shoes" translated as "ocupar el puesto de alguien.". The meaning is conveyed, but the idiomatic tone seems to have been entirely lost here. Not to mention, "fill someone's shoes" doesn't really convey the magnitude of the task at hand like, "big shoes to fill". So, are there any idioms in Spanish that come close?
4 Answers
Here are two idioms commonly translated as "biting off more than you can chew" with explanations of their etymology in Spanish: "el que mucho abarca, poco aprieta" and "meterse en camisa de once varas".
I can't think of one off the top of my head, there is one that relates: "ponerse en los zapatos de ..." (to put oneself in the shoes of...).
If you want to say "fill someone's shoes" in the sense of taking on responsibility I'd suggest some options you could say: porque va a tener grandes responsabilidades. porque va a ocuparse de tareas muy importantes. porque va a llevar a cabo importantes tareas. ya que va a ocupar un puesto de gran responsabilidad.
Something along the lines of having a lot of responsibility.
Hi Cisco, there is not a direct idiomatic translation of "big shoes to fill" in Spanish. The meaning is typically translated as something like, "va a tener una gran responsabilidad (/grandes responsabilidades)". Hope this helps.
English use would have the added implication that whoever was trying to fill those big shoes and had not filled them previously would not only have a big responsibility but also have a dimished probability of success. It would be much like "biting off more than you can chew."
