Conocer el percal

poli	August 18, 2010 07:51 AM

Conocer el percal

Know the truth?:thinking:

chileno

August 18, 2010 09:36 AM

This is what RAE has for percal.

conocer alguien el ~. 1. loc. verb. coloq. Estar bien enterado de un asunto o conocer bien a alguien.

EDIT: En Chile decirmos "Te conozco, mosco" :)

JPablo

August 18, 2010 01:39 PM

And Moliner gives this,
Conocer el percal (generalmente con referencia a aspectos negativos). Saber bien cómo es alguien o algo.

El poli (policía) ya se conoce el percal, y no se va a tragar una mentira... :)

percal m percale; conocer el percal (fam) to know the score (colloq), to know the
people (o situation etc) one is dealing with

sosia

August 18, 2010 02:50 PM

Hi poli
If you look in the RAE
RAE

Quote:

percal. (Del fr. percale, y este del persa pargāle, trapo).
1. m. Tela de algodón blanca o pintada más o menos fina, de escaso precio.
2. m. Taurom. capote de brega.

in the first you can see the percal is a cheap cloth.
So one who knows "the cheap cloth" (uno que conoce el percal) is someone able to discern wich cloth is valuable or cheap. It's a person who knows the market/affair/people so you can not fool him easily:
So RAE

Quote:

conocer alguien el ~.
1. loc. verb. coloq. Estar bien enterado de un asunto o conocer bien a alguien.

I don't know if you have a sentence similar to....
-a person who can smell rotten fish
-a person who can see thetrue value of a jewel
and so on...
saludos :D

poli	August 18, 2010 08:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sosia (Post 92079)

Hi poli
If you look in the RAE
RAE

in the first you can see the percal is a cheap cloth.
So one who knows "the cheap cloth" (uno que conoce el percal) is someone able to discern wich cloth is valuable or cheap. It's a person who knows the market/affair/people so you can not fool him easily:
So RAE

I don't know if you have a sentence similar to....
-a person who can smell rotten fish:bad: we say :smell a rat:good:Hamlet said:there is something rotten in the state of Denmark (he smelt a rat:lol:)
-a person who can see thetrue value of a jewel:bad: We use it in a negative way: he wouldn't know a diamond if he held it in his hand. He doesn't know sh.t from shinola.
and so on...
saludos :D

Knows the ropes, and as JPablo said knows the score. He knows his stuff.

Thanks everyone
-

JPablo

August 18, 2010 09:46 PM

You're welcome, Poli...
Good data about rats and diamonds! :D

(Is not Hamlet the one who said "My kingdom for a rat..."? :thinking: Oops! No, hold my horses... that was the crippled Richard III... and it was a not a rat, it was a horse..)

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