The paper analyses expressions of literal and metaphorical motion in English and Spanish. In English, the tendency is to express path in the element following the verb, while in Spanish it is expressed in the verb. Additionally, Spanish verbs do not express manner of motion as often as English. The analysis was based on assessments of 30 English and 30 Spanish speakers in two experiments testing how speakers react to metaphorical motion in familiar and novel phrases. Results indicate that English speakers faster more often recognized familiar metaphorical expressions containing manner verbs than Spanish speakers. As far as novel metaphors are concerned, English speakers more often but slower chose the literal match with regard to sentences with path verb. The author concludes that the findings confirm Kövecses’ (2005) suggestion that, for metaphorical motion, language variation plays a role in the expression and understanding of metaphorical language.