EnglishisEasy/Elinglésesfácil

ICE WATER is not only cold but apparently also quite blue. Of course, ICE WATER is AGUA FRIA and also COLD WATER is AGUA FRIA. But then, when do we say COLD WATER and when do we say ICE WATER? In most cases it is OK to use the term COLD WATER; but if we mean water that contains ice cubes, we should say ICE WATER and not COLD WATER.

So many  HASHTAGS! They could easily take over the world! Well, these days the answer is HASHTAG,  a term made popular by Twitter. However, that is not the only name it has. Before HASHTAG became universal, other names were more common for this symbol such as POUND SIGN, NUMBER SIGN, and even HASH CHARACTER can be used.

No. These are not your regular RAFFLES. You can't even eat them . When we say RUFFLES it does not necessarily mean only the brand of potato chips known all over the world. RUFFLES, as a noun, means strips of some fabric gathered or folded with ornamental purposes in some pieces of clothing. In dresses or skirts, RUFFLES are positioned around the neck or the wrist. I Spanish RUFFLES are called VOLANTES (in some countries VOLADOS).  The problem with this word in Spanish is that it is also used to refer to Flyers and Steering Wheels.

"All right, is it to the left or to the right next? or maybe the chest? Wow, this was so much easier when I was a kid." What Catholics, and also the Orthodox, call PERSIGNARSE can be translated with more than one option but not one word. Here are most, but not all, of them: CROSS ONESELF MAKE THE SIGN OF THE CROSS SIGN ONESELF BLESS ONESELF The option most often used is the first one in the list.

"I'm the British equivalent to your Chavo del Ocho. Please, like me." This is a word taken from British culture.  It's an adjective used  as an informal derogatory that usually describes a lower-class youngster who displays anti-social behaviour, and has a  preference to wear either real or imitation designer clothes. In a more general sense,   this word  can be applied, a bit loosely perhaps, to pretty much every culture with a similar nasty element.  In Spanish, the word ÑENGOSO is probably the closest in meaning to what a CHAV is. There is a female version of the word, as well, CHAVETTE.

"I'm not an AJENO! I'm an ALIEN and you are what I eat!" This one of those words that have no equivalent in English. AJENO essentially means NOT YOURS. Words that are close in meaning, though not exactly the same, are: PRIVATE, UNKNOWN and ALIEN.  "Esto es un asunto AJENO"  would be "This is PRIVATE business." "Esto es AJENO  a mi conocimiento" would be "This is UNKNOWN to me." "Tales costumbres son completamente AJENAS a nuestra cultura" would be "Such customs are completely ALIEN to our culture."

"Ok, ok... I do, I do! With reluctance?" Sometimes, long words in English are similar to their counterparts in Spanish. Comfortable is Confortable and Instrumental is Instrumental, for instance. It's not always like that, though, and such is the case of the word RELUCTANCE. RELUCTANCE or RELUCTANCY is an attitude. It is you when you are unwilling to do something. If you do not want to vote for a certain candidate then you are reluctant to vote for him or her. To put it into Spanish is a bit more complicate. RELUCTANCE is definitely not Reluctancia, and the noun Reluctante does not exist either. The term is RENUENCIA from which we get the noun RENUENTE (unwilling to do something).

"Fine, I don't get to be the president, but at least I got this to make me feel HEADY..." Though not necessarily a positive thing something is labeled HEADY when it is stimulating. It can be applied to alcoholic drinks (for obvious reasons), and also to situations that excite your senses in a powerful way such as a good book, a terrific film or a great accomplishment. It can also have a negative side, and then something that is HEADY is impetous or violent. In Spanish HEADY could be, depending on the situation, EMBRIAGADOR, VERTIGINOSO or PRECIPITADO. 

Can we make that thing of ANDAR CON PIES DE PLOMO stronger? Whar if we say ANDAR CON PIES DE HIERRO?  The literal translation would be something like WALK WITH LEAD FEET which certainly sounds odd in English if not funny. Of course that is not how you say it in English. We could say WALK ON EGGSHELLS meaning we have to be extremely careful in whatever we are attempting to do. One that is perhaps more common is TREAD CAREFULLY or WARILY.

"I' m about to eclipse the Sun in 3, 2, ..." This is one of those expressions that do not make any sense in Spanish if they are translated literally.  It is definitely not SENTARSE EN EL SOL which would be quite inconvenient if it could be done for real. The right expression in Spanish is ASOLEARSE or TOMAR EL SOL . There are of course other ways to say the same such as LIE IN THE SUN, SUNBATHE or SUN TAN.

If the second were true, credit cards would not be so successful. This is one Spanish wins. There is not one word to define what FIAR is in English.  FIAR is when you sell a product but admit the purchaser to pay at a later date. The most likely translations would be SELL ON CREDIT or BUY ON CREDIT depending on who's speaking, the seller or the buyer. GIVE CREDIT is also possible, however, this expression also has another meaning which is to acknowledge someone's merits.

This GAZEBO is so cozy people get sleepy after a while and return home to go to bed. Nice word, right? Lots of terms in English look like other words in Spanish, e.g. Hamburger is Hamburguesa, Comfortable is Confortable and Delicious is Delicioso. But GAZEBO...there is no even etymology for such term, though there are several hypotheses about its origin.  You can find GAZEBOS in gardens or in places in the open. They have several purposes: they are ornamental, they serve as shelters, and also as observatories (which is why they are located in cozy and quiet places). There are a few words in Spanish for GAZEBO (even QUIOSCO qualifies), but the one that is closest in meaning is GLORIETA.

Museum Guide: "And here you can see authentic FORGED documents from the early XX century." Well forget about To Falsificate, which actually is the Italian word for this crime.  To Falsify does exist but it means to alter a document to make it look false or incorrect. When you falsify something you take something and change it in a way it looks real but it's still intrinsically something else.  For instance, if you take a one-dollar bill and change it so as to look like a five-dollar bill that is to falsify. (the product is known as Counterfeit Money) If I make a document that never existed before or I create counterfeit money and next I claim it is real then that is FORGERY.  The verb TO FORGE exists and indeed it means to create a document for the purposes of deception but it also means to shape metal by hitting it in a furnace and then hammering it.

Truck Driver: "And yes, you will have to pay for this as well!" When something is impounded it means that it is under  legal custody because of a law infringement of sorts.  Waht is impounded should be something really valuable such as  a car, a computer or even documents.  That is the most usual use of the word IMPOUND as a verb, but it could also mean Lock Up or even Hold Back. For purposes of this entry we will use only the most well-known meaning. In this case the translation is CONFISCAR. vehicles  parked  where they cause an  obstruction will be impounded

                                                                                      Did you wash your hands before this? I'm not so sure . It's so simple really, and because of that just one more proof that English is more practical  than Spanish. The term is HAND-FEED or HANDFEED. You do the math -- DAR DE COMER CON LA MANO ( six words ) versus HAND-FEED ( two words connected by a hyphen ).