8

Supongamos un diálogo así:

A: Lo siento. Cometo muchos errores cuando aprendo castellano.

B: Shit happens.

¿Cómo se dice "Shit happens" en castellano?

DerPolyglott33
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  • See relevant meta post on this (and related) questions: http://meta.spanish.stackexchange.com/q/388/12 – Flimzy Oct 11 '14 at 19:20
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    "Shit happens" NO 'se dice' de ninguna manera en castellano, ni hay la menor razón para esperar que un modismo así deba tener un equivalente en otra lengua. Su pregunta debió ser "¿Qué suelen decir los castellano-parlantes en los contextos en los que un californiano podría decir 'Shit happens'?" . Las respuestas que se le han ofrecido abajo le sugieren expresiones que podrían ser de uso similar al de "Shit happens" en ciertos contextos, pero NINGUNA de ellas 'dice' lo que dice "Shit happens", lo cual no tiene nada de extraño: al preguntar así, ha partido Ud. de una presuposición falsa. –  Jan 19 '17 at 22:35
  • @Sibutlasi Al parecer has contestado en lo manera más correcto en contraste con las respuestas que quedan aquí hasta ahora. Intraducible, punto y nada más. Debe ser más una respuesta que un comentario. O sea si no te vas a revisar el título de la pregunta. – Lorenz Lo Sauer Jun 20 '17 at 08:42

10 Answers10

19

In Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Spain and many other places we say:

Así es la vida

fedorqui
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digitai
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    This works for a lot of other places too. – user0721090601 Oct 06 '14 at 16:40
  • Esta me gusta y la he usado. Soy de mexico. – Jaume Oct 06 '14 at 18:51
  • In Peru they say also "Así es la vida" or "¡Qué le vamos a hacer!" or sometimes they swear like this "Puta madre" or abbreviated "Puta mare" or "uta mare". Puta = Whore and Madre = Mother. It's like to say Holy Shit! But it depends in the intonation. You should say it like shit happens. But if you shout puta madre you will be insulting someone, anyways saying that it is rude. Nevertheless, as other have mentioned "cosas que pasan", but "así es la vida" is more common. – Maximus Decimus Jul 06 '17 at 23:43
16

In Uruguay and Argentina and also Spain the more accurate translation of shit happens would be the expression: "son cosas que pasan" and most of the time the "son" word is omitted and you just say: "cosas que pasan" (although in Spain it's more common not to omit it).

Another similar expression to express this but that isn't as accurate (can have a slightly different meaning depending the context), is: "son cosas de la vida" (again, you can omit the "son").

Flimzy
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mp19uy
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  • In Chile also would be common to use (son) cosas que pasan, but also you would say ¿qué le vamos a hacer? or así es la vida, or even, depending on the context/situation.. mala cue(v)a no más po – Andrés Chandía Jan 01 '19 at 17:59
8

In my country Cuba we said Eso pasa o esas cosas pasan... gajes del oficio.

A tu pregunta:

Eso pasa gajes del oficio? Puede decirse " Ese pasa" o " pasa" ?

Debes usar eso:

  • Esa Cuando te estás refiriendo a sustantivo con género femenino.
  • Ese Cuando te estás refiriendo a sustantivo con género masculino.
  • Eso es usado cuando te estás referiendo a una sentencia o una acción.

  • Esa is used when what you are referring to a noun with feminine gender.
  • Ese is used when what you are referring to a noun with masculine gender.
  • Eso is used when you are referring to a sentence or an action.

Gajes del oficio is optional, is a way to said in my country but it's an addon to the phrase.

fedorqui
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Emilio Gort
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7

Puede decirse:

Esas cosas pasan

jlliagre
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4

In Colombia it's not common to translate the "Shit happens" expression literally.

As complement to datelligence's answer you may notice that Shit isn't used in the translated expression.

Some adequate translations can be:

Esas cosas pasan. / Esas cosas suceden.

DGaleano
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3

En Uruguay también decimos:

Es lo que hay. ¡Valor!

fedorqui
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wow
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2

A parte de las otras opciones, creo que Así es la vida es igualmente válida.

celerno
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2

Some expressions you can use may be:

  • Es así
  • Cosas que pasan
  • No queda otra

Así se dice en España.

fedorqui
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1

En Chile sería:

cosas que pasan

o

mierdas que pasan

en contexto más informal

fedorqui
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1

In Mexico it's also common to commiserate by saying

Ni modo.

which means, there's nothing one can do about it. This phrase has a certain tinge of fatalism which is quite common in Mexico. While I can understand why people respond that way, that attitude is not my personal style. You can decide if you want to use it -- but at any rate, you'll now understand the phrase when you hear it. It's quite common, in many contexts.

As mentioned in an answer that the moderators deleted, there's a less polite version of this (which means basically the same thing):

Ni pedo.

I wouldn't recommend that a foreigner use this phrase, though, as the literal meaning of "pedo" is fart. My guess is that it sprang up as an alternative to "ni modo" because it sort of rhymes and it's sort of a playful variant of the original.

Another idea:

If you want to express the same idea, in an informal way, but without any vulgarity at all, here are two responses you would commonly find in Mexico, at least:

No te preocupes
No hay cuidado

And either of these could be softened by adding "Mano/a" (short for hermano/a, or brother) or "Hombre" (man, but works for either gender). If there's an age difference, then the softener could instead be "Compañero/a" or "Señor/Señora."

aparente001
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