Thread: Nube
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Old July 04, 2008, 03:39 PM
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Rusty Rusty is offline
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Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: USA
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Native Language: American English
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Alfonso View Post
I'm sorry, Rusty, in Spanish tú eres mi nube is not a frase hecha. Of course, you can say such a sentence, but it's not something repeated by many meaning always the same thing independently of the meaning of the words it's formed of. Not everything that sounds weird in Spanish is a frase hecha.
It doesn't sound weird, it's just a phrase I didn't readily recognize as a term of endearment, because I would not choose to use that word in English. But in Spanish, it appears to be a term of endearment. That is why I called it a set phrase (just like my angel, cutie pie). Using that word doesn't literally mean that you think the person is a visible body of fine water droplets suspended in the atmosphere. It means something else to you.

In English, we can compare someone to the attributes we metaphorically assign to a cloud. For instance:
When I fall, you are my cloud. (You 'catch me' when I fall. You pick me up after a hardship, or you soften the blow of a failure.)
She was a cloud on a blistering day. (She was a welcome sight.)
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