Puede sonar la flauta

English translation: He could get lucky OR He could get a bit of luck

18:47 Sep 5, 2017

Spanish to English translations [PRO]
Slang

Spanish term or phrase: Puede sonar la flauta

This appears in an email exchange. The conversation is as follows:

Person A:
Nuestro amigo me ha llamado enfadado porque no le hemos contestado. Quieres sentarte con el la proxima semana? Imagino que también con el socio, verdad?

Person B:
Ok. Puede sonar la flauta. Al amigo deberíamos citarlo en la oficina, no?

Person A:
Citaré a los dos para el martes.

jmf KudoZ activity Questions: 1023 (9 open) (16 closed without grading) Answers: 84 United States
Local time: 12:04

English translation:He could get lucky OR He could get a bit of luck

Explanation:
This is an idiom and according to the Oxford Dictionary "sonar la flauta" means "to get a bit of luck".

Selected response from:

Michael Powers (PhD)
United States
Local time: 12:04

Grading comment

Selected automatically based on peer agreement.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Summary of answers provided

4 +3

He could get lucky OR He could get a bit of luck

Michael Powers (PhD)

4 +2

That's an idea!/that'll work/that could be

Phoenix III

3 +1

We could be lucky

Domini Lucas

we might hit (the) jackpot

Paula Sepúlveda (X)

Discussion entries: 1

Answers

9 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +3

He could get lucky OR He could get a bit of luck

Explanation:
This is an idiom and according to the Oxford Dictionary "sonar la flauta" means "to get a bit of luck".

Michael Powers (PhD)
United States
Local time: 12:04
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 20

Grading comment

Selected automatically based on peer agreement.

55 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +2

That's an idea!/that'll work/that could be

Explanation:
This context lends itself more to interpreting than to a literal translation.
In LatAm, "le sonó la flauta/se le prendió el bombillo" means that the person "finally" had an idea. I truly believe that this is the right interpretaion in this case as well.
Lat but not least, Google is not the bible of translation. If a thousand people write baca and it comes up on Google with a million hits it only means that one thousand people and Google are dead wrong and the one person who writes VACA is 100% right.

Phoenix III
United States
Local time: 12:04
Specializes in field
Native speaker of:

English,

Spanish
PRO pts in category: 20

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)

agree

Marie Wilson: I've never heard this expression so I'll take your word for it, as this makes more sense in the context.

9 mins

-> Thanks so much, Marie!

neutral

Domini Lucas: re interpretation I totally agree. It's why I went with 'we' as an option. If you have experience of the phrase I can but bow to your knowledge as it does make sense. Do you know if it is also used that way in mainland Spanish?

3 hrs

-> I don't know if it is used in European Spanish, but it's common in LatAm as I said. Language is expression and if it doesn't make sense we're just not communicating. :0) This one a classic example.

agree

Robert Carter: "That'll work" is exactly what came to mind when I first read it, but I'd never heard this phrase used before.

19 hrs

-> I have heard a million times but not in this context. Many thanks!

15 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +1

We could be lucky

Explanation:
I just googled as it was a term I hadn´t heard before. both this link and the other one I googled seem to point to it having something to do with luck. Not having heard it before I am not sure from the context whether it is ´"He could be/get lucky" or "we" (meaning "one". So best wait to see what others say as well...

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Note added at 1 hr (2017-09-05 19:56:13 GMT)
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I totally agree that Google is not the bible of translation. But none of my hand held dictionaries or Colloquial Spanish books had it (possibly too old) so it was a starting point as the two seemed to coincide and one link was a discussion.

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Note added at 4 hrs (2017-09-05 22:59:51 GMT)
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I think also that the internet including google can offer some help specifically where slang is concerned. As also social media.

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Note added at 4 hrs (2017-09-05 23:13:49 GMT)
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I have found another hand held dictionary Collins 2001 which does feature a similar phrase. It has "sonó la flauta (por casualidad)" translated into English as "it was a fluke, it was sheer luck" but it doesn't specify whether it is mainland or LAm Spanish. The (por casualidad) is the dictionary´s inclusion and brackets not mine.

Reference: http://termbank.com/en/spanish-english/flauta

Domini Lucas
United Kingdom
Local time: 17:04
Native speaker of:

English

19 hrs confidence:

we might hit (the) jackpot

Explanation:
Here's another option. An idiom that means " to achieve great success, esp through luck"

Reference: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/jackpot

Paula Sepúlveda (X)
Spain
Local time: 18:04
Native speaker of:

English,

Spanish

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Puede sonar la flauta

English translation: He could get lucky OR He could get a bit of luck

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Puede sonar la flauta

English translation: He could get lucky OR He could get a bit of luck

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