"Si ya sabanas pa' que cobijas?" and more...

Question

A friend of mine who has Mexican Spanish-speaking coworkers recently told me that the phrase "Si ya sábanas, ¿pa' qué cobijas?" means something like "If you already know, why are you asking?" I wanted to know if any of you out in SD land are familiar with other expressions like this (from any country).

Recientemente un amigo mío me dijo algo que le enseñó uno de sus compañeros hispanohablentes de su trabajo. Es decir, la frase "Si ya sábanas, ¿pa' qué cobijas?" significa algo así como "If you already know, why are you asking?" en inglés. Quiero saber si alguien de SDlandia conoce otras expresiones así. (de cualquier país)

I've heard that Mexicans are particularly fond of words plays like this one, though I can't think of any others off the top of my head. I'm very interested to see what other ones come up, though. - BigMike, Feb 25, 2013

Answer 1

Mexico has many expressions like this that are not exactly a play on words but creations of words/meanings from existing words:

¡Qué milaneces que nos bisteces! ..... ¡Qué milagro que nos veamos! (What a miricle that we see each other!).

Está loco del coco ..... Está loco de la cabeza (He´s crazy in the head).

Llegué por mis Dodge patas ...... Llegue por mis dos pies, caminando (I arrived by my two feet, walking).

Thanks for the insight! :) - LaPiedraAlegre, Feb 25, 2013

Ah, the modern version of Shank's pony... - annierats, Feb 25, 2013

Answer 2

I just thought of one, allí nos vidrios (instead of nos vemos). Used in Mexico.

That's so funny! I wonder how many more there are! - LaPiedraAlegre, Feb 25, 2013