In this article, we will go through seven Spanish collocations with
Spanish Collocations with Tomar
Tomar a broma (to take as a joke)
La noticia del periódico era tan inverosímil que nos la tomamos a broma.
The piece of news in the newspaper was so unlikely that we took it as a joke.
Mariana, estoy muy enfadada contigo. Me mentiste, fuiste a la discoteca y volviste sola. Siempre te digo que es muy peligroso, pero tú te lo tomas todo a broma.
Mariana, I’m very angry with you. You lied to me, you went to the nightclub and you returned alone. I always tell you that it’s very dangerous, but you take everything as a joke.
Tomar en serio (to take seriously)
Necesitas tomar las cosas en serio, déjate de bromas. Esta no es una situación divertida. Con esa actitud, vas a suspender el examen.
You need to take things seriously, stop kidding around. This is not a funny situation. With this attitude, you’ll fail the exam.
Escucha, Eduardo, tenemos un problema: llegas tarde, te marchas cuando quieres, te pasas el día entero en internet… Si no te vas a tomar en serio este trabajo, tendré que despedirte inmediatamente.
Listen, Eduardo, we’ve got a problem: you arrive late, you leave whenever you like, you spend the whole day on the internet…If you’re not going to take this job seriously, I’ll have to fire you immediately.
Tomar con calma (to take easy)
Entre los tópicos que existen sobre los caribeños, es muy frecuente oír que se toman la vida con calma.
Among the clichés about Caribbean people, it’s very common to hear that they take life easy.
Pues sí, no entiendo por qué te tomas todo con tanta calma, te da igual si discutimos, si grito o si no… es que nunca reaccionas.
Well yes, I don’t understand why you take everything so easy, you don’t mind if we fight, if I shout or not… you just never react.
Tomar la molestia (to go to the trouble)
Y Arturo se tomó la molestia de acompañarme a casa aunque vivo solo a cinco minutos de la suya; es muy amable.
And Arturo went to the trouble of going home with me even though I live just five minutes away from his place; he’s very kind.
Ya que no te tomas la molestia de enviarme los documentos por correo, iré yo a recogerlos la semana que viene.
As you don’t go to the trouble of mailing me the documents, I’ll go and collect them next week.
Tomar la palabra (to take the floor)
Damas y caballeros, ahora toma la palabra la doctora Mercedes Martín.
Ladies and gentlemen, now Dr. Mercedes Martín will take the floor.
Volveré a tomar la palabra al final del discurso para hacerle algunas preguntas, señor presidente.
I’ll take the floor again after the speech to ask you some questions, Mr. President.
Tomar aliento (to take a breath)
Solo paramos a tomar aliento una vez durante toda la caminata, así que estaba agotada.
We stopped just once to catch our breath during the hike, so I was exhausted.
Necesitamos tomar aliento y ponernos a trabajar de nuevo o no acabaremos nunca.
We need to take a breath and start working again or we’ll never finish.
Tomar la delantera (to take the lead)
El atleta etíope ha tomado la delantera en la segunda vuelta. Era el favorito y finalmente ha quedado en segunda posición.
The Ethiopian athlete took the lead in the second lap. He was the favorite, and in the end he placed second.
Aunque ha sido siempre uno de los países con industria puntera, parece que otros países menos ricos podrán tomarle la delantera en pocos años.
Although it has always been one of the leading countries in industry, it seems that other less wealthy countries could take the lead in a few years.
Exercises
There are many other idioms or collocations you can learn and practice in our blog with verbs such as