EnglishisEasy/Elinglésesfácil

"I'm not quirky. I'm just a winged pig...wait, I'm quirky!" QUIRKY is anything that is offbeat, peculiar, odd. Yet it is not necessarily offensive, so do not get ready to punch anybody if you are called QUIRKY. In Spanish, QUIRKY would be RARO, DIFERENTE, INUSUAL. Out of the three, when we say something is RARO that is often not a positive thing to say. Still something we have concluded to have un aspecto raro (a QUIRKY look) could be something good - our impression of the object, whichever it might be, is favorable. We just do not get it, at least not entirely.

Don't worry. It's only a dilapidated cistern, not the entrance to Hell.   The spelling is quite similar actually - CISTERN. We can also call it a WATER TANK or a WATER RESERVOIR.  There are several types of CISTERNS, but perhaps the most common one in Ecuador, and more specifically GUAYAQUIL, is the UNDERGROUND CISTERN.  Our CISTERNS are usually built underground because it is homeowners who require this specific facility (an underground CISTERN is desirable because it saves up space and has a minimum aesthetic impact). Modern houses do not require CISTERNS since the water service is much better these days. The same cannot be said about the quality of the same service in the past. That just had no name.

"Which direction should I follow? Decisions, decisions..." A DIRECTION  is not an address, of any kind. Nevertheless, if given the right DIRECTIONS you can get  to any address. A DIRECTION is more an indication, an instruction or guidance you provide so someone can get to one place.  In Spanish a DIRECCIÓN is the place where something is located or where a person lives. Thus, the translation of DIRECCIÓN is not DIRECTION but ADDRESS.

What are they all looking at?          It depends on what you mean by AUDIENCIA.  Those who attend a performance of some kind, a concert, a movie or a play are collectively called AUDIENCE. An interview with someone of a high rank is also known as an AUDIENCE. "No, mister. We can't imagine what you got in your hands."        An AUDIENCIA is a HEARING when you are called to answer a committee's questions on some specific subject of public interest. You may also be defending yourself so in order to do that a public HEARING is installed. Then you have a chance to present your side of the case.

"If THRIFTY means feeding me of course it is cool!" It all depends. If we call someone THRIFTY, and we do it as a compliment, it means AHORRATIVO. If we call someone THRIFTY and our approach is negative then it means TACAÑO.  If we call something THRIFTY in a positive way it means ECONOMICO. If we call something THRIFTY in a negative way it means LIMITADO (in terms of money). Possible antonyms are Generous (Generoso) or Wasteful (Despilfarrador).

Does it look like that backpack you lost long ago? That little time you stay in one place is a SOJOURN. It might be that you're traveling or visiting somebody; and the time you spend there would be defined as a SOJOURN. e.g. It was during one o my SOJOURNS to London that I had the privilege to interview Stephen Hawking. Synonyms of SOJOURN are visit or stay. It is a bit difficult to find a good translation for SOJOURN.  If we had to translate SOJOURN we could say something like a  CORTA ESTADIA or a CORTA VISITA. 

"Very funny! Just your index fingers won't hold the chart!" Most Earthquakes (Terremotos in Spanish) do not come alone, so to speak. An area that has experienced a quake recently is likely to experience several more the following days or the same day until the moment earth stops shaking and stabilizes completely and things go back to normal again. The good news, if we can call it good news, is that usually those successive quakes are of a lesser magnitude. Those "less intense" quakes are called AFTERSHOCKS or MINOR SHOCKS whereas in Spanish they are called REPLICAS.

Jim Carrey's expressions say it all. Double Personality? It's a possibility but not the most common term to describe this problem. It is defined as a condition that causes a person to behave in different ways at different times as though there were two or three people (in some cases even more) inhabiting the same body.  In Spanish we call it "complejo de doble personalidad" which is not accurate since a person with this disease may have more than two personalities. In fact, there are cases of people having up to one hundred different personalities.   The most common way to refer to this problem in English is SPLIT PERSONALITY. It is also called Multiple Personality disorder but apparently the right way to refer to it is Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). The cause of this disorder: child abuse, sadly a fact common to all those who suffer DID. 

This one is not so easy to translate because a LEGHORN is chicken but not any kind of chicken. This specific breed comes originally from Italy and was imported in the XIX century to The United States. Soon, farmers there began breeding them because LEGHORNS were and are good layers. The chicken commonly found in Ecuador is not the same as in the U.S.. To start with LEGHORNS mostly lay white eggs whereas our chicken lay light brown eggs. In spite of their  shell color eggs taste the same. LEGHORN eggs can only be found in certain markets because their introduction in this part of the world happened only recently and so they are not as widespread.

This is one bird that won't be flying to the South. Not Badminton Ball for sure.  In English it is not called a Ball because it is not one. In Spanish we call this object a PELOTA (ball) perhaps for lack of a better term. It is obvious to us, Spanish speakers, that it is not a Ball but, then again Badminton is not that popular in our countries.  The name is BADMINTON BIRD. Standard BADMINTON BIRDS include feathers as part of their structure (that section is called Skirt) which helps the object move through the air differently from regular balls of racket sports. The use of feathers explains why the object is called a BIRD or BIRDIE. A more professional name is SHUTTLECOCK.These days the skirts of SHUTTLECOCKS are no longer made of feathers which are perhaps harder to obtain and also more fragile and other light materials, such as plastic, are preferred.

Quite often we find that most students feel Reading and Writing a boring class, and it is if we cannot come up with ways to make it entertaining for them. One way to do it is by giving the whole thing a "sense of purpose: we read and then we write because we are going to do something with it.  Here is an idea (that is not mine, BTW). This activity is about creating movie posters based on the stories your students are reading. Of course you need stories that have not been translated into movies but have the potential.  Tell your students that by the time they finish reading this or that story they have to create a movie poster based on that particular tale. They have to do the casting that is looking for the actors that are right for the roles in the story. They have to explain those decisions in an exposition to the class and next they must elaborate the art concept for the movie poster which should include one of those catchy sentences to hook the audience. The beau...

You'd like to sleep here, wouldn't you? TRAGALUZ in English is SKYLIGHT.  Like that, no space in between. Also known as CLARABOYA, a SKYLIGHT is an opening in the roof of a house that allows the entrance of natural light.  SKYLIGHTS vary in size depending on the amount of light you really need. Some are quite small and others as large as windows (overhead windows in this case).The pic that accompanies this article shows one of the large ones and as you can see the visual impact makes them quite desirable for those who value the aesthetic aspect of their homes. The only problem is that, unlike regular windows, SKYLIGHTS  are not meant to be "closed" so unless you really need one in a certain part of your house do not become a fan of SKYLIGHTS just yet.

The translation is definitely not CASUALIDAD. Casualidad is Chance or Coincidence, e.g. ¡Qué casualidad! - What a coincidence! ¡Es pura casulidad! - It's pure chance! CASUALTY means VICTIMA as in someone who got killed in a war for example or some sort of disaster. A more appropriate term is perhaps BAJA. The number of civilian CASUALTIES is enormous. - El número de BAJAS civiles es enorme. As you can see, CASUALTY can be confusing for the average English learner since it is what we know as a False Friend. A False Friend is a word that looks similar to another from a different language but does not have the same meaning just like CASUALTY that has a spelling similar to that of the Spanish term CASUALIDAD. Yet they do not have the same meaning.

Definitely not TWO BY TWO! In Spanish 2X2 is said DOS POR DOS. Literally that would be TWO BY TWO though I've had students saying TWO FOR TWO. None of those is correct. In English you don't say BY or FOR in this context. What you actually say is TWICE TWO IS TWO. If you want to say UNO POR DOS then say ONCE TWO. If you want to say 3X4, 4X4 5X7 is actually easier. Replace POR with the word TIMES as follows: 3X4=12 - three TIMES four is twelve 4x4= 16 - four TIMES four is sixteen 5x7 - five TIMES seven is forty-five.

"Admit it. I'm a better Consuegro than you." The answer is there's no word for that in English. Though of course there are CONSUEGROS and CONSUEGRAS in their culture but for some reason there is not one specific term to refer to these members of our extended families. What you can do is to introduce this person as "my son or my daughter's father / mother in law" That should be enough.

"Ants...Ants...Where are thou?" This singular animal with physical features that seem taken from other animals is called an AARDVARK. It lives in Africa and just like the famous Ant Bear from South America, it feeds on ants though it also eats other insects. Perhaps the fact that is a nocturnal animal explains why not so many people know about AARDVARKS. In the Spanish-speaking world many people mistakenly call it OSO HORMIGUERO, just like the ANT BEAR, but a more precise name would be CERDO HORMIGUERO though AARDVARKS are not really related to pigs.

Well, there are things that you will never find in any of the standard EFL books, and this is one of those. The word CERUMEN is that greenish brown secretion that appears in our internal ears. The technical word in English is precisely CERUMEN just like in Spanish but unlike Spanish there is a non-technical word for CERUMEN in English that is also more popular and commonly used: EAR WAX.   

So many sundries, so little time! SUNDRIES  is a word that refers to several objects at the same time. These objects are usually of small value, and size, which is why they are not mentioned separately but altogether under the label SUNDRIES. You can find SUNDRIES in small stores, drugstores or souvenir shops. The best possible translation I found was MISCELANEOS or OBJETOS DIVERSOS (again too diverse and cheap to be worth mentioned one by one). Those living in Guayaquil can find SUNDRIES in stores such as EL DOLARAZO or basically in any bazaar. SUNDRIES is an remarkable word because as a noun it only exists in plural form. It can be used in singular form (SUNDRY) but then is not a noun but an adjective. In that case SUNDRY means diverse, various, miscellaneous.

What? Food? Did you say food? There is not a direct translation of MICHU, MICHU in English.  MICHU, MICHU is the way we call cats in Ecuador, or at least in Guayaquil. Sure we have names for our cats but whenever we need their attention,  MICHU MICHU is what we say. In the USA, when you call a cat you say : "HEY, KITTY. KITTY, KITTY..." If you're uncertain, don't worry. Just put some tuna in your hands and say whatever onomatopoeia: regardless of what you say, the cat will come.

  Does it look like a Skeleton to you? A SKELETON KEY is basically a master key, one that has been modified or created to grant its possessor passage to all the rooms in a dwelling. The reason why it  is called a "SKELETON" KEY is due to its shape that somewhat resembles that of a skeleton. Well, at least it resembled a skeleton to those who used those keys.  In Spanish there is not an equivalent to SKELETON KEY, or Passkey as it is also called. But a Master Key is called LLAVE MAESTRA.

For one of those super hot afternoons! A GRANIZADO is an iced soft drink which initially was prepared with lemons or oranges but these days you can use pretty much any soft drink. In fact in some countries there are GRANIZADOS  made of coffee. All you need to prepare a GRANIZADO is crushed ice and a non-alcoholic beverage. In Guayaquil you can find GRANIZADOS everywhere, especially in our hot sultry afternoons. There are street vendors who go up and down the streets selling GRANIZADOS which are prepared with crushed ice and flavored drinks such as mint, strawberry, also fruit juice and even sodas. If the GRANIZADO is prepared with Mint or Strawberry liquor, you can even ask  your GRANIZADO to be topped by sweetened condensed milk. All depends on what the customer wants.  It is called Raspado de Granada or Granita in Spain, just Raspado in Mexico, and even Piragua in Dominican Republic. In Ecuador it remains just GRANIZADO and in English it would be SLUSH. ...

"I have another with the words I Love Nicknames" SOBRIQUET is just another way to say NICKNAME. The original spelling of this word includes a U (SOUBRIQUET) but the pronunciation is the same. It is another example of a word that was taken from French and incorporated to the English bank of words. SOBRIQUET in Spanish is APODO or SOBRENOMBRE. There are differences though. NICKNAMES can be offensive, but SOBRIQUETS not necessarily. Another thing: SOBRIQUETS are never shortened forms of a name, e.g. Robert is the name and Bob, the nickname but not the SOBRIQUET. Finally, SOBRIQUETS take the shape of epithets. Here is an example of a SOBRIQUET: because of its vast cultural baggage, Cuenca is appropriately called "La Atenas del Ecuador". (The Athens of Ecuador).

And Drinking inside a Bottle is forbidden, too! Though most people would say, and they would be right, DRY LAW the most appropriate term is PROHIBITION OF ALCOHOL. Perhaps the problem with that is that in the U.S. there was a PROHIBITION OF ALCOHOL (usually nicknamed The Prohibition) in the first part of the 20th century. That law is perhaps one of the most famous ever and is referred to in several movies or TV series such as The Untouchables.        Though that law may no longer be in existence other "DRY LAWS" are ordered around the world existing for a brief period that extends since  a day or two before elections to a day or two after such event. DRY LAWS are then measures taken to help safeguard peace as people decide who or what to vote for. 

Saving Mr. Banks is one of those films that take you to a time and place where things were different, less complicate. Well, not for Walt Disney (Tom Hanks) who tried to convince Pamela Travers (Emma Thomson) to give him the film rights to Travers's masterpiece,  Mary Poppins.   To Disney's surprise, Travers was always reluctant to grant the rights and he didn't understand why. The movie tells us that precisely: why Mary Poppins stories and the characters were so important to her author and the lengths Disney and his collaborators had to go in order to finally convince Ms. Travers that Mary Poppins was in good hands. There are many things about this film that stand out but especially Hanks, Thomson and Collin Farrell as Ms. Travers's father; they all deliver great performances, and even the secondary characters look great. Also the recreation of the diverse settings of this story (California, London and Australia) is perfect with a great attention to detail. Fina...

Dean Martin  (1917-1995) CROONING is singing. If you're CROONING you're actually singing, but in a very distinct manner. When you CROON (that's the verb) you sing in a soft, also sentimental, way. Among the many singers who made CROONING part of their presentations we have Tonny Bennet, Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby and the great Dean Martin. Curiously, a CROONER is always a male singer and only very few female singers are considered CROONERS. What is the equivalent in Spanish? There is not one word to define CROONING in Spanish. Apparently, this term comes from an old German word (kronen) that meant lament . The word made its way to English but not Spanish to become what is today.

Don't worry. I got my license yesterday! The answer is there is not a word for that in Spanish.  CARPOOLING means sharing the same vehicle. This is especially useful during long journeys when different people occupy the driver's seat whenever one of them fells tired. There are other ways to understand CARPOOLING. Workers in the same company who live relatively closer to one another may agree sharing the specific duty of picking the others in his or her car on a certain day or days. Another will do the same on the following day and so on according to the number of people that participate in this activity ( five is the ideal number).  CARPOOLING is thus considered an environment-friendly way to optimize resources and in some places is even encouraged.  It is not that Spanish speakers do not CARPOOL. We do, but why there is not a word for that in our language is beyond me.

Am I beside or besides you? Both and none. Both are correct but each one has a different function. BESIDE is a preposition and should be used to indicate the place where someone or something is located regarding someone or something else. In this case BESIDE is a synonym of Next To. e.g. You will find your pencil BESIDE your notebook. BESIDES has a different purpose since it means In Addittion To . e.g. Here's the money your father sent you. BESIDES  you already had money of your own.

The word FÚLMINE used here is actually a name. FÚLMINE is a character created by Guillermo Divito (1914-1969), an Argentinian cartoonist. FÚLMINE was a bad-luck bringer though nothing bad happened to him but to those he talked to. If something good happened to one character it was bad news if FÚLMINE was around. Whatever good happened the opposite was bound to occur once FÚLMINE left. The character became somewhat popular in Latin America and in Ecuador the character's name is commonly associated to those who are believed to bring bad luck. Public figures are favorite targets of this misplaced action. Not long ago the current Ecuadorian president attended a soccer match to see his favorite soccer team play. Needless to say his team lost as it happened the last time the president attended a previous match. This team's fans "figured out" that the president was a FÚLMINE,  a belief that with good humor the president himself decided to share so he stopped attending ...

A Portmanteau is not a port and it is not a word, but a combination of words and their meanings into one. One good example of that is the word Info mercial which is the result of the blending of the words Information and  Commercial . A Portmanteau takes from the meanings of the words that were used to make it up and at the same time it does not because it is created to refer to a new concept. Here is another example:  Br unch , a term that results from the combination of the words Breakfast and  Lunch. It is neither but that quick meal that you take in the mid-morning, too late for breakfast and too early for lunch. What is the translation of Portmanteau in Spanish? There is none for the meaning used here, but Portmanteau may also refer to what in Spanish is called BAUL DE VIAJE. The name Guayaquil would be another example of a portmanteau.

As you can see in the picture, the expression is TO MAKE A LONG STORY SHORT (you can also say LONG STORY SHORT). It is like saying I´m going to give you nothing but the facts. For some reason that escapes me there is a connotation  to this expression in English and that is TOO LATE. It is perhaps a reference to the fact that by the time this is expression is said there is nothing we can do to solve the problem we're told.

"Nooo, I forgot my parachute!" If you like movies that are somewhat different then probably you will enjoy this film. I don´t know much about the first version (the one I saw is a remake ) which was in its turn based on a book by James Thurber. This character Walter Mitty  is played by Ben Stiller who does not really disappoint. His presence in the screen is always fresh and genuine and whenever he appeared he was always believable in a setting that is anything but that. Walter is an employee of LIFE magazine who is constant daydreamer. He mixes reality with his own dreams whenever things turn sour. At the same time LIFE is about to finish printing in paper and start publication in digital form only. for the last edition he is entrusted to use a photo taken by a legendary photographer Sean O' Connell (Sean Penn). O' Connell seems to have forgotten to send that photo in particular and Walter in despair decides to go looking for him. This decision will change Wa...

10. Stop writing stupid lists!!! New Year's Purposes? New Year's Aims? New Year's Objectives? New Year's Decisions? New Year's Determinations? Well, all of those are fine and sound fine and yet none of them is right. The correct expression is NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS. The word Resolution is usually defined as a firm decision to do something. These resolutions are always expressed with a verb in base form, that is no TO or any other form of conjugation, just the verb as it is. Which one is the number one RESOLUTION in most new year's lists? As you can see in the photo it is to lose weight.