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Phrase: 'El choclo se está desgranando”

English translation: its all coming apart at the seams

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
Spanish term or phrase:El choclo se está desgranando
English translation:its all coming apart at the seams
Entered by: Stuart Allsop

15:22 Aug 10, 2006
Spanish to English translations [PRO]
Bus/Financial - Idioms / Maxims / Sayings
Spanish term or phrase: Phrase: 'El choclo se está desgranando”
This phrase occurs in a sarcastic speech about the new administration of a company, after a major change in the board of directors. The speaker is referring to the way that he predicts the company will fall apart under the new management.

I know what the phrase means, of course, but I'm looking for an equivalent colloquial expression in English.
Stuart Allsop
Chile
Local time: 12:14
its coming apart at the seams...
Explanation:
would be my option.
Selected response from:

muitoprazer (X)
Local time: 17:14
Grading comment
All three suggestions were really creative, and I did use parts of them later in the same text. But this is what I used here.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
4 +7its coming apart at the seams...
muitoprazer (X)
3 +2Everything's falling apart
María Teresa Taylor Oliver
4crumbling
Cecilia Paris


  

Answers


6 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +2
Everything's falling apart


Explanation:
This reminds me of that Yeats' poem: "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold..." :) :)

María Teresa Taylor Oliver
Panama
Local time: 11:14
Native speaker of: Native in SpanishSpanish
PRO pts in category: 12

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  María Eugenia Wachtendorff: "Will slowly fall apart" sounds more like a choclo desgranándose grano a grano, que es la idea del sarcástico orador./ I've read some of Yeats' poems, only 'cause I found them handwritten in one of my mom's college copybooks ;)
1 hr
  -> Thank you, MEW ;) I recently found the poem quoted in a book... by Stephen King!!! ;P hehe
agree  Refugio: Also remniscent of Chinua Achebe's wonderful book "Things Fall Apart" (and there, too, it is little by little).//A real classic, and not too long.
9 hrs
  -> Gracias, Ruth. I didn't know the book, so I did a little research and it sounds very interesting - added it to my ever-growing list ;)
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7 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +7
its coming apart at the seams...


Explanation:
would be my option.

muitoprazer (X)
Local time: 17:14
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 8
Grading comment
All three suggestions were really creative, and I did use parts of them later in the same text. But this is what I used here.

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Patricia Fierro, M. Sc.
19 mins
  -> thanks
agree  Ivannia Garcia: Yup agree....but there's an apostrophe in IT'S ;)
24 mins
  -> thanks
agree  Jennifer Levey: Yes - but as it's a prediction, "it will come/fall apart at the seams ..."
29 mins
  -> thanks
agree  Roxanna Delgado
32 mins
  -> thanks
agree  Daniel Burns (X)
35 mins
  -> thanks
agree  Adriana de Groote
44 mins
  -> thanks
neutral  María Eugenia Wachtendorff: I don't really think this is exactly what the speaker means. He is predicting slow decay of a company that apparently is doing well...
1 hr
  -> yes,like an old item of clothing that the thread gradually wears out on,but not overnight,
agree  Susy Ordaz
4 hrs
  -> thanks
neutral  Refugio: Agree with MEW, this is a little different.
9 hrs
  -> see above response to Maria.
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3 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
crumbling


Explanation:
Don't have your context but the term could be used like "the company is crumbling" or

No one wants to buy a crumbling company. ITV Digital's TV services gone from our screens after the administrator threw in the towel and admitted that nobody ...
scom.hud.ac.uk/scomrlo/cfp2117-02/c0268658/source3.htm

Cecilia Paris
Argentina
Local time: 13:14
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish, Native in SpanishSpanish
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