Thread: Is "que ponga una ficha para ella" an expression anyone understands?

Hi,

I am a beginner in the spanish language and I was wondering if someone could help me translate a spanish expression someone said to me but I didn't understand. It was " que ponga una ficha para ella." I understand it is an expression as it makes little literal sense. I was hoping someone could give me the gist.

Many thanks...

Hi Mattias,

My name is Cesar, and I have read your previos post. I am also Mexican and I have not heard about such as expression. I can figure out about something, if you are sure about the sentence is correct, "que ponga una ficha para ella" instead of "fecha", it is possible that it is referred to set something especially for "her", what I mean is that another person can reserve a special place for this "her". For example, in a conversation:

Mike: quieres ir a México?---Do you want to go to Mexico?
Mattias: Sí, sí quiero.-------Yes, I do.
Mike: Y María?-------------What about María?
Mattias: Si, pon una ficha en ella---- Yes, reserve a place for her.

Sorry about the example but is the only one that I bear in mind. This could be use in any situation not only for this special situation.

Also, you have to consider that this is only my point of view, I would need more information for giving a more complete idea about this.

Remember that a standart Spanish does not exist, the only thing that really exists is how competent we are among diferent cultural communities which handle diferent
versions of the same language. In this case, this expression could be a particular expression of a particular group of people and which no other groups use, I don't really think it is the case, but it is also a possibility.

These are my comments about your post, I hope this could be useful for you.

Thanks Cesar. That is helpful.

If it interests you, the speaker was Argentinean and the person she spoke to was German, though he speaks spanish. He basically posed it to me as a bit of a riddle to figure out saying that she had said it to him in reference to me. I have subsequently spoken to him and he has said the meaning he took from it was basically something like, "put in a good word for me." Although that is just the way he compared it to an english expression.

Anyway, many thanks for your effort.

Ok. I hope you can figure it out!!!

If you like riddles, take a look in this page Ojo Sapiens

This riddles are in Spanish so maybe you can practice with them.

Thanks and continue posting.

Creo que "poner una ficha por ella", quiere decir "to bet on somebody".
Poner una ficha=apostar por ella: en un sentido positivo y esperanzado
Make it sense for you?

Thanks Sandra and Emiliam. I think I have the sense of it now. I appreciate you posting.

Hi Mattias,
Emiliam is right on the money.
"Poner una ficha en o por alguien" means "to have faith in somebody or something" or "be willing to bet on somebody", The literal translation would be "to insert a coin into (STHG or SB)", the expression comes from the figurative sense of somebody bidding on a slot machine at a casino.
In your example: "Le pongas fichas a este chica" means that you need to take a chance on that girl, or it might also mean that you need to trust that girl to be a good candidate for something.

Hope it helps

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