Sus promesas cayeron en saco roto

[ROBINDESBOIS]

CAer en saco roto es que nunca se cumplen. ENGLISH?

[Perikles]

He never kept his promises.
His promises were always unfulfilled.
He was all mouth and trousers. (perhaps not :rolleyes:)

[poli]

He made empty promises**

He's full of beans.

He lies like a rug.

**This is the closest of these translations to the Spanish idiom

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

I think the most important part of this expression depends on "en saco roto" more than in the fact of lying.

"Echar/caer en saco roto" means that something doesn't have an expected effect.

Es inútil aconsejar a Juan. Lo que le digas, cae en saco roto.
It's useless to give a piece of advice to Juan. He never listens to anything you say to him.

No eches en saco roto las advertencias del doctor, podrías regresar al hospital.
Listen to the warnings of the doctor; you could go back to hospital.

[ROBINDESBOIS]

what about fall in the air?

[poli]

what about fall in the air?
You mean full of hot air which means full of beans or full of sh..
pero lo que dice Angela un saco roto tiene otro significado.
Tal vez el significado cambia cuando cruce el charco.

[ROBINDESBOIS]

Well, I heard someone somewhere to fall in the air, I don´t know if it has got a different meaning, but I think it could mean caer en saco roto.

I saw To fall in deaf ears, I guess this is it.

[poli]

To fall on deaf ears significa algo dicho no escuchado.

example: I pleaded with the gambler to stop, but I feel it fell on deaf ears.
Now he is bankrupt.

Full of air significa lleno de aire nada más--como una llanta. Full of hot air significa algo que no pesa, unas ideas que no tienen valor o promesas que nunca van a cumplir o mentiras.

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

@Poli: "to fall on deaf ears" se parece mucho a "caer en saco roto", pero yo también he oído "to fall in the air" como algo que se deshace en el aire, y también se parece a algo que cae en saco roto.

[poli]

Thanks for the info: Caer en saco roto means to fall on deaf ears.

Maybe there are regional differences, but fall in the air means
el sentido de otoño en el aire in my region. I have neither heard
nor read fall in the air to mean fall on deaf ears.

Example:
In October there's a sense of fall in the air. The sky is bright blue, the leaves have turned red and yellow and you may want to wear sweater. It's time for apples not tomatoes.