Jarabe de pico

[laepelba]

Would you please use "jarabe de pico" in a sentence for me? I have found it in a list of idioms meaning "lip service". In English we would say "give lip service" or "pay lip service". Would it be "dar" or "pagar" in Spanish, too?

Thank you!!

[chileno]

I have never heard that to mean what you say. What's more it isn't very nice in Chile.

[laepelba]

How so?

[chileno]

Originally Posted by laepelba

How so?

You really want to know?

[laepelba]

Maybe not?

[chileno]

It is bad...

[Glen]

I've heard it as meaning to soft-soap someone, with the idea of persuading him to do something, but I too would like to hear examples of how it's used.

[chileno]

Originally Posted by Glen

I've heard it as meaning to soft-soap someone, with the idea of persuading him to do something, but I too would like to hear examples of how it's used.

Nothing to do with soap, not in Chile at least.

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

Be careful, that's a common Mexican expression but it can be very rude in South America!

(In some countries "pico" is a way to talk about male genitals.)

In Mexico, to say that someone is "(puro) jarabe de pico" means that the person lies or says things that they don't/won't do. One can also say "ser hablador".


Eres puro jarabe de pico; nunca has vivido en Estados Unidos, y dices que sí.
Eres un hablador...

No le creas nada a Juan, es puro jarabe de pico. Todo lo que dice es mentira.
No le creas nada a Juan, nomás es hablador.

Esa clienta nomás es jarabe de pico; no nos va a demandar por haberle dado mal servicio.
Esa clienta nomás es habladora...

Los políticos son todos jarabe de pico: prometen y prometen y no cumplen nada.
Los políticos son todos (unos) habladores...

[chileno]

Ah, so that's a Mexican term. And yes, in Chile pico is the male genitals.

[Glen]

Thank you for the examples, Angélica. So it's not so much to do with persuasion after all. More like cacarean y no ponen huevo, right?

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

I think so, Glen. I have never heard it the way you and Lou Ann have found it. Perhaps in another country.

[laepelba]

Okay, so I'm trying to say that many societies talk as if they value education, but they do not use or vote for their money to be used to value education..... In English, I would say that they pay lip service to the value of education, but when it comes to valuing it with their wallet, they do not.

[caliber1]

Originally Posted by laepelba

Okay, so I'm trying to say that many societies talk as if they value education, but they do not use or vote for their money to be used to value education..... In English, I would say that they pay lip service to the value of education, but when it comes to valuing it with their wallet, they do not.

Kind of like saying someone can talk the talk but not walk the walk right?

[Glen]

Would any of these work for you, even though they don't use jarabe de pico?

Dicho sin hecho no trae provecho
Hombre hablador, poco cumplidor
Ofrecer y no dar, lo mismo que robar

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

@Lou Ann: Just a little recommendation. If you're working to publish the thing you're writing in a formal journal or so, Spanish speakers (at least Mexican ones) are a bit touchy when it comes to colloquial language in formal writing. I've seen daily speech is much more commonly used in academic English than in academic Spanish, so if you're inserting such expressions, perception on your work might be affected by that.

[laepelba]

So it would be better to just say something like "En muchas sociedades, la gente dice que valoran la educación pero no dedican dinero a ella." ??

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

If that's the idea, definitely.

[laepelba]

Thanks!!

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

Oh, by the way: "la gente valora/dedica" (it is a collective noun, but it has singular conjugation in Spanish).