Para el carro
 

El otro día se me ha dicho una historia y oí el frase "¡Para el carro!". El contexto es que una niña estuvo peleando con sus padres y la mama le dijo a la niña esa frase.

I know it means "stop the car", but is its meaning the same as calm down, "relajate"? Or is this literally mean "stop!"

Muchas gracias amigos

It means 'stop' in this case.

Apparently I need to "para el carro" when I think I can type fast. I'm even messing up my English:duh::banghead:. Thanks for the corrections Rusty; Spanish and English lol :lol: I have been studying a lot this week. I knew the accents and the "la" that I missed, obviously, but I'm still trying to understand "fue" and "decían".

'The context is ...' didn't sound right to me. A story was being told, the context of which '... was ...'.

"They have told me' doesn't sound right. "They were telling me' is what I corrected it to. You could put the impersonal 'se' ('se me decía') back in, but it's very common to hear the imperfect used in the third-person plural. I would have actually liked to have seen the verb 'contaban', instead, but I kept your verb because it isn't wrong.


EDIT: I just noticed that I gave you the wrong answer above because I misread what you wrote about the context. If mom said "¡Para el carro!" to the girl, that is an idiomatic expression meaning, "Hold your horses!" (or words to that effect). Sorry about that!

Me extrañaría si eso no es de Chile.

Yes, it means "stop" "relax" "chill" "apply the brake" etc

In Chile it also means to confront someone and cause them to "stop" behaving the way they were...


hacerle la pará de carros a alguien.

"Para tu/el carro" is commonly used in Mexico.
Rusty's answers are both alright. In the case of a crying child it's most likely to mean something like "stop it right there or...!". :D

"Para tu/el carro" is commonly used here also.

"para el carro" (stop the cart) is used here (generally as "pará el carrito") with the meaning of either hold your horses (I always hear neighs when I say this) or knock it off.

Hi, I think "Para el carro" means both "Stop" and "Relájate". But, maybe she wanted to say "Stop" to her daughter.

Saludos.