a dodge patas - (to get around) on foot. Definitely an expression that shows the class division in Chile. people who can't afford cars get around on foot or by public transport. So if asked how they arrived at a place they might say "a dodge pata". Since Dodge is a brandname of car, you think they might be about to tell you the type of car they arrived in, but they're making a joke of the fact that they arrived on foot (pata, actually means animal legs, but is used colloquially to refer to human legs).
Diego: Como llegaste a la casa del chamo?
Ana María: A dodge patas po, weón, como no me fuiste a buscar.
Diego: How did you get to chamo's house?
Ana María: On foot, since you didn't pick me up.
"a dodge patas" on the web: the authoritative Chilensis dictionary, diccionario libre
"en dodge patas" seems to work even better as in gñerty's example in the comments.
And here's a great visual for the "en dodge patas" expression.
Edited Dec 2.
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5 comments:
This is weird... Maybe you got it wrong?
I am chilean and have never heard or used "a dodge pata". I do use, however, "a pata".
It makes more sense to me "a dos patas" or "on two feet".
It may also be a pronunciation thing, as "dodge" and "dos" sound pretty similar.
This blog is amazing. I have laughed so hard with some chilenismos and their translations! Great stuff!
Hi Andrés,
It's a chilenismo. My Chilean hubby uses it and it's in the authoritative Chilean expression dictionary. I've created a link on the original post.
But thanks for calling it to my attention, because I realized that "patas" should be plural and edited the post. I had it as "a dodge pata", but I changed it to "a dodge patas". When I've heard the expression used, the speaker hasn't pronounced the "s" of "patas". But it makes sense that it should be plural.
I added links to a couple of definitions I found on the internet.
I'm glad you're enjoying the Chilensis blog ;) You'll probably enjoy the Chilenismo dictionary that I linked to, as well.
I've heard en dodge patas, never a dodge patas. The first time I heard it was like this:
Myself: ¿Cómo llegaste?
Friend: En dodge.
Myself: ¿En auto?
Friend: En dodge patas.
Andrés: of course it's a pronunciation thing, it's a play on words.
Google shows 9 examples of a dodge patas such as "iban, mejor organizados que la mia y ademas llevaban camioneta, mientras que los de mi uni iban a dodge patas".
This one is new to me. Do you pronounce dodge like it was an English or a Spanish word.
Great job by the way on the linguistic explanations.
Yeah, I pronounce it with the Chilean pronunciation. It sounds almost like "dos."
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