Help me with a translation into English

Question

Hi, I´m a mexican, and here in Mexico we use the following saying:

Se me hizo bolas el engrudo.

To express that something went out of our control and ended up in a mess.

Engrudo is a paste made of flour and water boiled together so as to make a cement.

"Hacerse bolas el engrudo" means literally that de flour and the water form a messy ball of starch.

But figuratively that means that something went out of someone's control:

"Se le hizo bolas el engrudo al presidente"

Is there any equivalent saying in English? I would appreciate if you could describe the context where you use it and in which countries is used.

Thank you!

Hint:

hacerse bolas con algo (Méx) = to get in a mess over sth

Thanks for your answers. All of them have been very useful to me. - LuisCache, Sep 24, 2013

Answer 1

[Revise my English, please]
I'm not a native but here is my effort: Things went south.

I've heard this sometimes in American movies and TV series when someone has a plan to accomplish something but something else goes wrong. They lost control of the situation and things ended up badly.

Also: The situation went got out of hand literally means "uncontrolled" but this one does not imply that they ended up in a mess (I think). In Spanish it would be la situación se le fue de las manos.

Thanks a lot. I´ve never heard that one: Things went south. But I thing that may be the equivalent to comunicate that something goes wrong. - LuisCache, Sep 23, 2013

:) The only thing I would change is, "got out of hand." - rac1, Sep 23, 2013

Answer 2

Things went south is a good approximation.

All I can think of is "Everything went tits up" but you can't always say that because it isn't very polite.

:-) Here we say; "Todo acabó patas arriba", meaning that everything went wrong and ended up iin a mess. - LuisCache, Sep 23, 2013

Answer 3

It was a mess. Is a very common phrase to say that something went wrong. The computers all failed in the office, it was a mess. Or for more emphasis, it was a right mess.

Or ' it was a dog's dinner" very English.

Someone gives you a pile of papers that are supposed to be organized and you say. "What is this , it looks like a dog's dinner"

It was a mess, is less physical than a dog's dinner, I would say a dog's dinner refers to more of a physical state, than " it was mess".

For example the electrican ran the wires in my house and he made a complete dog's dinner of it.

The government tried to sort out the social security problem but made a right mess of it, and now the country pays more !

Thank you, Stigky. Your answer is very helpful. I think in my case is more accurate "it was a mess". I was trying to explain my English teacher why I was late that mornint. Thanks again for answer. - LuisCache, Sep 24, 2013

Answer 4

las bolas o las botas it is hard to think botas when you think of large meatball though it is understandable that you are looking bolas.

even germans don't eat botas.

Answer 5

In the military we used to say: FUBAR = f**ked up beyond all recognition.

or Repair. We said it a lot. - rogspax, Sep 23, 2013