La pescadilla que se muerde la cola

[ROBINDESBOIS]

How do we say this idiom in English?
It s used when people keep talking about the same topic again and again, and every speaker sticks to his ideas and wouldn t change them despite what others might say.

[poli]

The person can't get off the subject,
but if you wish to sound more figurative:
the person doesn't change his tune -or- keeps bringing up the same bit.

[Perikles]

Everybody talking in circles

[Awaken]

I can't think of a single phrase that describes what you are describing. I know exactly what you are talking about though. All I can think of are related phrases that don't describe the whole topic:

They're wasting their breath (for the never going to change part)
Political stalemate (doesn't describe the talking part)
Beating a dead horse (talking about the same thing over and over without change)

None of those are really exactly what you described. Maybe we should just start calling that whole thing "American Government" since it describes it perfectly =)

[Don José]

I've never heard "la pescadilla que se muerde la cola" as explained in the OT. I've always heard that expression meaning "vicious circle".

In this link it is translated as different animals (dog, cat, fish, snake..) biting or chasing their tails:

http://www.linguee.es/espanol-ingles...e+la+cola.html

[powerchisper]

Esta expresion se usa en ciertos casos.

Imagínate que piensas en una situacion como....

-Niño no puede comprar chicle
-Kiosco cierra por no vender chicle
-Fabrica de chicles tiene que cerrar
-Trabajador despedido no puede dar dinero a su niño.
-Niño no puede comprar chicle.

"Esto es la pescadilla que se muerde la cola"

It's like when you always end up at the point where you've started.

Sorry if it is too abstract , but I hope it helps you understand.

[Elaina]

He/She is a broken record......always talking about the same thing over and over again.

[ROBINDESBOIS]

Originally Posted by Elaina

He/She is a broken record......always talking about the same thing over and over again.

In Spanish we say es como un disco rallado. ( same meaning)

[Don José]

I'm sure there is a lot of young people who have never heard a broken record (or disco rallado).

[Rusty]

Originally Posted by Don José

I'm sure there are a lot of young people who have never heard of a broken record (or disco rallado).

That's for sure.

[JPablo]

¡Epa!
Disco rayado...
Muy diferente del queso rallado.

En inglés yo he oído sobre todo lo de "the snake biting its own tail"...
Like in "old" physics, someone defining and/or describing "time" in terms of "energy", "energy" in terms of "matter", "matter" in terms of "space", and "space" in terms of "time".

Or "circular definitions", as in
-"What is a 'bla'?"
-A 'bla' is a 'bliblu'...
-"What's a 'bliblu'?
-A 'bliblu' is a 'big bloo'...
-What is a 'big bloo'?
-Its a 'bla'.
(So, that 'fully clarifies what a 'bla' is, of course!)

Or like the old song, (maybe by J. Sabina or A. Krae...)
-¿Por qué estás tan triste?
-Porque no trabajo... (then the song goes all over different reasons to come back to the same question...)

(My two cents and a half.)

[wrholt]

Originally Posted by JPablo

..
Or like the old song, (maybe by J. Sabina or A. Krae...)
-¿Por qué estás tan triste?
-Porque no trabajo... (then the song goes all over different reasons to come back to the same question...)...

And in English there is: "There's a hole in my bucket, dear Liza", "Well then fix it, dear Georgie", "With what shall I fix it, dear Liza", ... coming back around to "There's a hole in my bucket, dear Liza".

[Don José]

Originally Posted by Rusty

That's for sure.

Thanks for the corrections, but I have a question. I understand that "who have never heard of a broken record" means that they don't know what a "broken record" is, but I was trying to say that they don't have the experience of hearing the same thing over and over when listening a broken record. Is there any chance I was right?

[Rusty]

Originally Posted by Don José

Thanks for the corrections, but ... I was trying to say that they don't have the experience of hearing the same thing over and over when listening to a broken record. Is there any chance I was right?

Yes, you were right. I made the wrong assumption.

By the way, when I corrected "there is a lot of young people" to "there are a lot of young people", I was also making another assumption - that you interpret the words the same way I do. There are people who say 'there is a lot of young people" and, according to several grammarians, we're BOTH correct. So, you had NO errors in your English.

How BOTH of us can be correct is simply a matter of how we interpret the words. Some regard 'lot' as being the main noun and disregard the prepositional phrase that follows it. Since 'lot' is a singular noun, the verb that follows the prepositional phrase will always be conjugated to agree with the singular subject 'lot' - 'a lot ... is'. So, if this is what you were thinking, you used correct English.
Others don't consider 'lot' by itself, but attest that 'a lot of' is just another way to say 'much' (if the following noun is singular) or 'many' (if the following noun is plural). I adhere to this school of thought. 'A lot of people are' is just another way to say 'many people are', so I also used correct English.

[Don José]

Thanks again.

[Elaina]

Originally Posted by JPablo

¡Epa!
Disco rayado...
Muy diferente del queso rallado.

En inglés yo he oído sobre todo lo de "the snake biting its own tail"...
Like in "old" physics, someone defining and/or describing "time" in terms of "energy", "energy" in terms of "matter", "matter" in terms of "space", and "space" in terms of "time".

Or "circular definitions", as in
-"What is a 'bla'?"
-A 'bla' is a 'bliblu'...
-"What's a 'bliblu'?
-A 'bliblu' is a 'big bloo'...
-What is a 'big bloo'?
-Its a 'bla'.
(So, that 'fully clarifies what a 'bla' is, of course!)

Or like the old song, (maybe by J. Sabina or A. Krae...)
-¿Por qué estás tan triste?
-Porque no trabajo... (then the song goes all over different reasons to come back to the same question...)

(My two cents and a half.)

You are so wise!!

[JPablo]

I am blushing...

But I found this...
HORACE said, "Wisdom is not wisdom when it is derived from books alone"
EURIPIDES said, "Cleverness is not wisdom."

But, thank anyway...