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I have just discovered the expression dejarse llevar de/por la corriente, but have found two different definitions online:

  • A. To follow the crowd
  • B. To go with the flow

Entiendo que A & B no necesaramente son mutuamente exclusivos pero, para mí, sus conotaciones sobre la persona a la que se refieren son muy distintas.

En inglés, la tendencia de uno a "follow the crowd", es decir, a "hacer lo que hagan los demás", suele considerarse una cualidad negativa, con la implicación de que la persona no es capaz de pensar por su cuenta y no tiene ideas propias.

Por otra parte, "to go with the flow" a menudo se considera un buen consejo y al decir que una persona suele "go with the flow", le estamos dando un cumplido, porque la capacidad de "go with the flow" conlleva una personalidad abierta y flexible en la que la persona sabe cambiar de chip cuando quiera que sea necesario para aprovechar y disfrutar una gran variedad de circunstancias.

Does the meaning of the phrase change when used depending on the context? Or does it tend to mean B more so than A?

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  • intente poner el ejemplo con mis colegas en USA.. nadie entendio lo que quiere decir, lo mas cercano fue "gone with the wind" que es mas que nada cuando alguien se va y nadie lo nota
    – Mike
    Commented May 16, 2018 at 20:15
  • Exactamente que desea aclarar?
    – alvalongo
    Commented May 16, 2018 at 21:51
  • I have seen "go with the flow" used in English as a euphemism for follow the crowd.
    – aparente001
    Commented Jun 13, 2018 at 4:18

2 Answers 2

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The correct answer is "follow the crowd". "Go with the flow" would translate as just "dejarse llevar" without anything else.

Examples:

Julia se deja llevar por la corriente y viste igual que todas sus amigas. Julia follows the crowd and dresses just like her friends.

Para ser uno con el Dao hay que dejarse llevar. To be one with the Dao you have to go with the flow.

BTW, it is always "dejarse llevar POR". "Dejarse llevar DE..." is agrammatical. The only possible use of the pronoun "de" with the verb "llevar" would be "dejarse llevar de la mano" which translates to "let oneself be led by the hand".

I'm native speaker (Spain).

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I'd say dejarse llevar por la corriente is more like B ("to go with the flow"), and generally carries a positive meaning, or at least not an immediately pejorative meaning. Of course context matters, but I don't remember dejarse llevar por la corriente used in the negative sense of "following the crowd", mostly because there are other ways to express that.

For that negative meaning you could say e.g. dejarse llevar de/por la nariz ("to be led by the nose"). Or as in English, seguir a la multitud or seguir a la masa. Or mixing both structures, dejarse llevar por la multitud ("to let yourself get carried away by the crowd").

You can use dejarse llevar por la corriente with a negative meaning, but the examples that I've found online tend to explain "why that's wrong even though it's the most normal thing to do". Seguir a la multitud and the other examples of that kind, on the other hand, don't seem to need that explanation.

I notice your title says dejarse llevar de/por. Using de for the agent of a passive voice expression like this was fairly common centuries ago, but nowadays it's obsolete (you only use por).

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  • that's i nthe context of "dejate llevar", but when we say se lo llevo la corriente that's the opposite meaning
    – Mike
    Commented May 16, 2018 at 23:37
  • I've heard quite often dejarse llevar for someone who just blindly assumes his fate, for example when they are about to die on some cancer or these kind of illnesses.
    – fedorqui
    Commented May 17, 2018 at 7:13
  • "se lo llevó la corriente" refers to the physical event of being carried away by a current or flood of water. "dejarse llevar por la corriente" is an idiom, unless you literally mean a situation like being in a boat and letting the current carry you. None of the uses has any judgement attached, neither negative nor positive.
    – runlevel0
    Commented May 17, 2018 at 8:51

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