5 IDIOMATIC EXPRESSIONS USING DAR

The Spanish verb dar means to give. It’s an essential verb and is used exactly as you would expect. “Le di el regalo” (I gave her the gift).

As with English, there are times when we may use verbs like this more idiomatically to create some less obvious expressions, not always relating to the giving of physical items. Therefore, today we are going to take a quick look at 5 expressions that use the verb dar or darse (reflexively) to create some interesting and handy constructions:

Dar por hecho | to take for granted or to assume
Literally meaning to give for done, this is a nice idiomatic construction that mirrors fairly closely how we make the same phrase in English, although in this case we're giving not taking.

“Dar por sentado” is an alternative way to make the same construction using the adjective sentado meaning (seated).

Let’s see a few examples of using this construction where we conjugate the verb into various appropriate forms:

Spanish	Meaning
“David dio por hecho que María estaría lista”	David took it for granted that María would be ready.
“¿Podemos dar por hecho que tienes razón?”	Can we assume you’re right?
“No doy nada por sentado”	I don’t take anything for granted

To take for granted or to assume something done, could be also be expressed as to consider something done. In Spanish “dar por” + adjective constructions generally translate to mean to consider, whereby the adjective in question is the thing being considered. For instance: “No nos podemos dar por satisfechos con esto.” (We cannot consider ourselves satisfied with this)

Darse cuenta (de) | to realise or to be aware (of)
When we use the verb dar reflexively, its meaning changes very slightly from to give into to give in, to give up or to surrender. When combined with cuenta (account) then the construction means to realise or to be aware of. Let’s see some examples:

Spanish	Meaning
“No me di cuenta de eso”	I didn’t realise that
“Lo hice sin darme cuenta”	I did it without noticing
“De pronto se dio cuenta de que todo irá bien”	Suddenly he realised that everything will be fine.

¡Dale! | Go ahead, Give it some!
Here we have a great expression using the command form (imperative) of dar and an indirect object resulting in “¡Dale!”.

Literally meaning “give to it”, it can be used like the English constructions: “Go for it”, “Hit it”, “Give it some”, “Go on”, “Go ahead” and so on. Usually used as a form of encouragement.

Dar lo mismo | to not care
Literally meaning “To give the same”, this idiomatically translates as to not care, in the same sense that we might say “It’s all the same to me” in English. Often people may simply shorten this expression to just “lo mismo” as a response, meaning they don’t mind as it’s the same. Let’s see some examples of how we might use this construction:

Spanish	Meaning
“A mi hermano le da lo mismo”	My brother doesn't care
“Fue terrible, pero a mí me daba lo mismo”	It was terrible, but I didn't mind.
“lo mismo da”	It makes no difference

Dar la vuelta | to turn around or to turn over
“Dar la vuelta” literally means to give the return. We can use this expression in a number of situations. Perhaps when giving directions to explain that you should turn around, or maybe when describing something that needs to be flipped or turned over; pancakes spring to mind.

Spanish	Meaning
“Darles la vuelta cuando estén doradas”	Flip them over when golden brown
“Ve al final de la calle y luego date la vuelta”	Go to the end of the street then turn around

Conclusion | En conclusión
Today has been another informal look at some Spanish idioms, this time focusing on the verb dar. As we grow accustomed to seeing verbs used like this, it soon becomes apparent that idioms exist in Spanish much in the same way as they do in English. Not all idiomatic constructions will make perfect sense, but often we can draw direct comparisons to similar forms in English.

At times these types of constructions can take on some quite different forms depending on how they are conjugated, so it’s not always as simple as learning them parrot fashion. But, armed with a good grasp of verb conjugation, spotting and using these types of constructions will soon become second nature, and certainly begin to help us to express things in a more natural sounding way.

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