EnglishisEasy/Elinglésesfácil

Eat, Donner, or is it Dunder? Damn Alzheimer! They are  Dasher ,  Dancer ,  Prancer ,  Vixen ,  Comet ,  Cupid ,  Donner , and  Blitzen . Santa Claus's reindeer are obviously magical since they can fly when pulling Santa's sleigh and are also supreme speedsters since they can go around the Earth in less than twelve hours. By the way, the word  reindeer  is one of those that remains unchanged in singular or plural form just like  shrimp  or  fish  for example.  It is said that the four reindeer on Santa's left side are all female (Dancer, Vixen, Cupid and Blitzen) and the four on the right are all males (Dasher, Prancer, Comet and Donner). Of course there is also Rudolph out front and center lighting the way with his "very shiny nose".  

Defined as a  Western   Christmas  tradition (we are not the only ones who celebrate Christmas) SECRET SANTA is a tradition which has the characteristics of a game and also of a ritual  . It is practiced anywhere (workplaces, schools or homes) and participation in it is usually voluntary. It involves the participation of several individuals related by bonds of friendship or just family. Randomly each of the members of the group is given a piece of paper with the name of one other member. He or she will send small presents to this other person without revealing who he or she is. By Christmas or before it, the participants gether together one last time to reveal who they were giving presents to and give one last big present. The Secret Santa tradition is truly a fun activity and it  helps reinforcing the ties within the members of the group. So the right term is SECRET SANTA and not SECRET FRIEND, direct translation of AMIGO SECRETO. 

"Me am unwieldy, so what?" We know the word HULK as the name of the Marvel superhero, but more than that it is a noun with other meanings.  HULK can be the body of an old or dismantled ship especially built to serve as a storehouse most of the times though in other occasions they have been used as prisons. These ships are no longer  considered fit for service obviously which is why the product of a wreck of a large size is also HULK or the HULKS (apparently the word also exist in plural form).  And the most important definition: someone or something that is bulky or unwieldy. 

With only these Calories there's no reason to worry about a thing . If Cherry is the singular form of Cherries, if a Fly is the singular form of Flies and Sky is the singular form of Skies then it stands to reason that Calory is singular for Calories, but no. In fact the word Calory, though it should exist, does not exist. The singular form of the word CALORIES is CALORIE.  How is this possible? Perhaps, and this is just me guessing, CALORIE is a word taken directly from French. CALORIE is the French spelling for what in Spanish we call CALORÍA. Perhaps when the word was taken into English no one bothered to make an English version of such word. Perhaps they should start paying attention.

"New York sister, you're not alone!" The Statue of Liberty or just Liberty, as many people call it, has been in front of New York City since 1886, as a testimony of the friendship between the U.S. and France, however, it's not the only one of its kind: there  are at least three other official replicas of the giant statue and all of them are in France. The one most people know is in Paris in the Île des Cygnes (Island of Swans), a small island in the Seine river. There is another, in the Jardin de Luxembourg which is human-sized and thus smaller than the one in the Seine. The third one is in the Alsace region where Frederic Bartholdi (the creator of Liberty) was born. This one is not human-sized but is not as big as the one in  Île des Cygnes.

True. George Washington never lived in the White House not  because  he did not want to but because he could not since during his presidential time the federal capital was under construction so he lived in three different houses: the first was  the  Samuel Osgood House  (April 1789 – February 1790), and the second, Alexander Macomb House  (February–August 1790). The third was   Robert Morris 's  city house   (November 1790 -March 1797) in Philadelphia. After that he retired from presidency and lived in his property until his death in 1799. The first occupant of The White House was John Adams in 1800 and has been the official residence of every U.S. president ever since.

When Thomas Jefferson became the third president of the United States of America he received a nation that was heavily in debt. The U. S. was at the time smaller in territory and in many way was still struggling to find a common identity. Jefferson was quite an honest man and prudent also; therefore, he believed that one of the priorities of his government was to reduce the amount of the national debt, but an unexpected development would promptly make him change his mind. That event was the cession of the Louisiana territories to France. That event was a problem for the U.S. because in that land there was New Orleans. This city was at the time the principal port of North America in the Caribbean Sea and until it was ceded to France it had been part of the Spanish empire. The Spaniards had granted a Right of Deposit to the U.S. meaning they could store their products in New Orleans to later send their merchandise to other parts of the world. The city was then really impor

Is there perhaps another Funny Bone in the knee too ? This is another example of the "lost-in-translation" case, one we can find only in English and that refers to the famous (for English speakers at least) Funny Bone.   Located in the elbow (as seen in the illustration), there is really nothing funny about the Funny Bone. If you accidentally hit it the result will be anything but funny since there is a nerve that runs in that part of the body and is also connected to your neck. The result: brief but intense pain; definitely not funny. One misconception about the bone is what really is. The Funny Bone is not the elbow but only part of it. The elbow is the joint of a lot of tissues, nerves and essentially the radius and the ulna (which form the forearm) and the HUMERUS (which holds the upper arm) but the pain produced when you whack it is due to the presence of the nerve mentioned above called Ulnar Nerve. The Funny Bone is then not a bone, it is a nerve! So it begs

Is this not a tough one? There are several differences between RABBITS (conejos) and HARES (liebres), both behavioral and physical. We will only see the physical here. To start with, HARES are larger in size in a proportion similar to that in the illustration that accompanies this entry. RABBITS have shorter ears though there are races that are famous for their long ears. HARES have stronger legs and therefore are much faster. They are so quick that it is a Hare not a Rabbit who is used as the epitome of speed in the famous fable The Tortoise and the Hare.   "Y' know what?, Mommy told me another story altogether." HARES can soon tend to themselves right after birth while RABBITS are born blind, hairless, and defenseless. When young, HARES are called Leverets while RABBITS are called Kits or Bunnies. The famous Bugs Bunny is then a Rabbit (it's all in the name), right? Not quite. If we use our memory Bugs may be called a Bunny but its physical a

"Only a smile they said..." Halloween is indeed not a holiday and it has never been.  We could say that is a tradition that belonged to the Celts, the people that originally populated most of Europe. This tradition or group of traditions were then inherited by the nations that descended from the Celts like for example the Anglo-Saxons. If the name itself does not ring any bell, the Anglo-Saxons were the ones who occupied the British Isles and later on formed the British Empire and eventually the United States when they came to America. Unlike what many people claim Halloween is not a Devil-worshipping event. The Celts were actually non-Christians so then they had no interest in worshipping a a renegade angel - demon who in turn was the antagonist of mankind. So don't celebrate it but don't hate it either, just have fun.

Both are the same but SNAKE is more commonly used, perhaps because of the fact that this word is originally taken from Old German whereas SERPENT was taken from French. For some reason, English speakers in general seem to show more affinity for those words that originally come from Old German. In the past SERPENT was more commonly used and in fact when these animals have legendary characteristics are usually referred to as SERPENTS and not SNAKES.  Here are some names of snakes in English and Spanish: Anaconda (same name in both languages) Black Mamba - Mamba Negra Boa Constrictor (same name in both languages) King Cobra - Cobra Real Diamondback Rattlesnake - Serpiente Cascabel

"¿Ya vieron? ¡Les dije que era mejor traer los trajes de buceo!" This word is considered offensive since it is applied to all those immigrants that illegally cross the border between Mexico and the United States looking for a job or in order to find a better income.  Originally the term was applied only to the Mexicans who crossed the Río Grande, a river that is used as a reference to mark part of the U.S. - Mexican border. They did that at night and of course when they came out their backs were wet which is why they were called WETBACKS (ESPALDAS MOJADAS) in Spanish. These days the term is applied to all illegal immigrants no matter if their backs are wet or not. The problem of WETBACKS has many sides and many aspects to consider. If you are a COPEI student remember to check Antonio and Wetback, two books that COPEI includes in its program and that are related to the illegal immigrant problem.

I see you...wait...I'm looking at you...uh, darn! Though with a similar meaning they are not the same. When you SEE something you are not really making any effort. In other words, SEEING is an action that can take place incidentally, there is not an implied intention to it or you are not really paying attention to the object in question. e.g. Yesterday, on my way home, I SAW a car accident. (I obviously did not intend to see something like that. It just happened.) LOOKING is different. When you LOOK AT something you are paying attention to an object, you are doing because you intend to. e.g. From time to time, my Dad comes out and LOOKS AT the kids playing to make sure they're all right. (My Dad is overprotective so he makes a decision to come out and see the kids are fine.) When WATCHING you obviously decide to see something, as when you LOOK AT, but also you pay much more attention to the object which besides is usually one in motion such as a film or a TV show.

Out of the way! I just saw a Shark! One of the many problems with Spanish and English is how different their sounds are sometimes. m English sounds tend to be low and guttural while Spanish sounds are loud but softer. The "punch" certain words have when uttered is different from language to language and also the meaning plays an important role when choosing what to say and even how to say it. This is particularly true when translating the titles of movies, in particular from English to Spanish. And the most dramatic example, in my humble opinion, of the point I'm trying to make is this film by Steven Spielberg, JAWS, In Spanish the translation is nothing but deplorable because it means QUIJADAS. Most people in my country would not go see a movie with such a silly title. It is then that those who bring movies change the title, and that's what happened: the title was changed to TIBURON (SHARK). What was the result? Instant success. Not the only case, though. H

Soon-to-be renamed James BALD There is not one word to use as there is one in English. Simply put the HAIRLINE is that section where the forehead ends and the outgrowth line of the hair begins. Facial skin changes texture in that area and becomes thicker forming a new layer which is called Scalp (Cuero Cabelludo in Spanish). Now the Hairline is an important part for many people, especially men, since it has this annoying habit of "receding". That means that as we men grow older our hairline silently and stubbornly begins moving upward so our forehead all of a sudden looks "wider". And it is not that we are becoming more intelligent, we are just getting older. As we grow old, our scalps lose consistency and as a result also lose width and thus the hairline seems to be receding no matter what we do or attempt to do. It is only at great cost of time and money that very few men have managed to actually keep their hairlines from moving upward. In any case, if

Concerned companies working for the future They are essentially the same thing so how we use them is what sets them apart. You POLLUTE the environment in general: water sources, the land, and the air. You can also say CONTAMINATE in these cases, though it is rarely used in this context and some even consider it a bit archaic. You CONTAMINATE when you make something impure as when you introduce a foreign element into something else that has remained untouched up to that point. Therefore, the scope of CONTAMINATION is not as large as that of POLLUTION and is often used to refer to small environments such as labs or kitchens where there are products so susceptible of losing purity that even with a small quantity they would be rendered useless.   This query was suggested by Fernando Toala, a colleague of mine. Thanks, Fernando!

"I'm not a curator. I'm only standing here." The word CURATOR has absolutely no relation with the Spanish word Curar (Heal).  A CURATOR is a person in charge of a museum (especially an art museum). As such a CURATOR is also in charge of selecting material for a presentation or what is going to be displayed in this or that exhibit. They are experts with instruction on Aesthetics and Art History so they can value an archaeological or art piece, and are even trained in preservation techniques. A CURATOR then is not a Doctor. The closest translation in Spanish is CONSERVADOR ARTISTICO. There is also the term COMISARIO ARTISTICO and these days we can also simply say CURADOR.

At least her eyes don't look as intense as before One of the most difficult words to spell, or remember, has to be BLAPHEROPLASTY.   Perhaps the reason is that BLEPHEROPLASTY is the name of a plastic surgery operation the purpose of which is to correct any deformity in a person's eyelids. Another more obvious reason why some people  undergo BLAPHEROPLASTY  is that is a great option to those who want to improve their appearance, especially those who have grown old. It happens that as we grow old our skin tends to form small bags around the eyes and the result is not very appealing. Those bags can easily be removed by performing a BLAPHEROPLASTY and the best thing is it has no side effects.

"Where is my t-shirt ,...........111 The Argonautica is an ancient story that just like The Illiad or  The Odyssey tells the deeds of the Greek heroes of the mythological era. Led by the intrepid Jason, another son of the god Zeus, a contingent of the great and brightest of the mythological Greece set to recover the magnificent Golden Fleece and thus they sail on board of the strong ship called Argo (which is why they are called the Argonauts). They encounter all sort of challenges until they finally recover the fleece. On  their way back they arrive to the island of Crete guarded by a gigantic man made of metal who walked around the island three times a day in order to guard it  and whenever an enemy stepped on the island shores it murdered the invaders. It was said that in order to kill all trespassers Talos put his chest over fire thus heating up his chest and then he "hugged" his victims instantly killing them as a result. Of course, Jason and the Argonauts mana

Complete name or real name, however you want to put it.    That would be BALLPOINT PEN. It is called like that because unlike quills or fountain pens there is a small circumference that allows just the right amount of  ink to come out and make the desired impression on the paper, the act we call writing. The BALLPOINT PEN was invented, at least in the shape it has these days, by Laszlo Biró, a newspaper editor from Hungary back in the early 1930s.