Pasarse de rosca
To go past the thread.
to go too far; **to go too far**; **to overdo it**; **to take it too far**; **to push it too far**; **to go overboard**; **to cross the line**
Pasarse de rosca means to go too far, to overdo something, or to exceed reasonable limits.
Te has pasado de rosca con esa broma.
You've taken that joke too far.
Creo que nos estamos pasando de rosca con las exigencias.
I think we're going too far with our demands.
No te pases de rosca, que tampoco es para tanto.
Don't go overboard; it's not that big a deal.
El profesor se pasó de rosca con el examen.
The teacher went too far with the exam.
Se ha pasado de rosca intentando quedar bien.
He went overboard trying to impress people.
Una cosa es bromear y otra pasarse de rosca.
There's joking around, and then there's taking it too far.
It is used when someone's behaviour, demands, jokes, criticism or actions become excessive or unreasonable.
A common construction is:
Pasarse de rosca.
→ To go too far / to overdo it.
The expression can also be used with a person:
Te has pasado de rosca.
→ You've gone too far.
- takes a joke too far
- becomes excessively demanding
- exaggerates
- behaves inappropriately
- pushes someone else's patience too far
- goes beyond what is reasonable
- makes something more complicated or extreme than necessary
The expression comes from rosca, the spiral or thread of a screw.
If a screw is turned too far, it can be damaged or become impossible to tighten properly. This physical idea of exceeding the appropriate limit was transferred metaphorically to human behaviour.
The underlying image is therefore:
turning something beyond its proper limit.
The expression is especially useful because it can describe many different kinds of excess without specifying exactly what the limit is.
Te has pasado de rosca.
Depending on context, this could mean:
- You've gone too far.
- You've overdone it.
- You're taking this too seriously.
- You're being unreasonable.
- You've crossed the line.
It is therefore highly dependent on context and tone.
Pasarse de rosca, pasarse de la raya and pasarse tres pueblos are close equivalents:
Te has pasado de rosca.
Te has pasado de la raya.
Te has pasado tres pueblos.
All can mean "You've gone too far", but they have slightly different imagery:
- de rosca → turning something beyond its proper limit;
- de la raya → crossing a boundary;
- tres pueblos → going absurdly far beyond the appropriate point.
The expression is normally translated with go too far, rather than preserving the screw metaphor.
No te pases de rosca.
→ Don't go too far.
Se pasó de rosca.
→ He went too far.
Nos estamos pasando de rosca.
→ We're going overboard.
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