EnglishisEasy/Elinglésesfácil

(In the middle of a class) Me: Well, in English there are also the Phrasal verbs Student A: Phrasal verbs? What’s that, Mister? Me: See, in Spanish we only have one way to express an action: with one word. In English there are those, but you can also express actions with two words. For instance, RETURNAR. In English you can say RETURN and also COME BACK, a phrasal verb. See? Two possible ways to say the same, in Spanish, we can only say RETORNAR. Student B: Oiga, Mister, pero también se puede decir REGRESAR. ( you can also say REGRESAR ) Me: Yes, well that’s a synonym… Student C: And you can also say VOLVER. Ya son dos ( that makes two ). Me: Yes, class, but remember: there are more options in English… Student D: And let’s not forget ESTAR DE VUELTA! Student E: ¡Y para ese usamos tres palabras! ( and for that we use three words!) Student F: O sea que con ese le ganamos al inglés! ( so, with that one we beat English! ) All students: Yeah! Bien!

"This is how I make all my errands. Spiderman would be jealous." When we say in Ecuadorian Spanish that we have to HACER UNA DILIGENCIA, that means we have something to do somewhere. It is usually a small thing: something to buy, a check to cash, or just a bill to pay. The English term for that is TO RUN AN ERRAND, though you may also say TO DO AN ERRAND or TO GO ON AN ERRAND.  

You can only wonder if they ever really need to light those candles on the MANTELPIECE. This is another example of what in English is called a False Cognate or more commonly a False Friend. So, the translation surely is not Mantel. In English, a MANTELPIECE is a ledge, some structure made of wood, stone or sometimes marble that is built over the fireplace. There is not one word in Spanish to serve as the translation of MANTELPIECE, but we can always say REPISA DE LA CHIMENEA.  

"Brave? Well, not right now. I'm mad. I can't find my comb. Darn!" BRAVO is not necessarily the best translation for BRAVE, not at least if you are in Ecuador. Here BRAVO is mad, angry. Un hombre BRAVO is a bad-tempered person. How this came to be is a mystery. Nevertheless, in other Spanish-speaking countries, BRAVO is indeed valiente which is valiant, or BRAVE. So, yes, BRAVE is BRAVO in Spanish, only not in Ecuador

"No WISECRACKS about my hair. At the moment, I am a WISECRACK ." A joke is a WISECRACK, but a joke is not always a WISECRACK. A joke can be a funny story that at the end causes laughter, but it is also a sarcastic and funny remark. If it is a sarcastic remark then it is called a WISECRACK. As such a WISECRACK can be translated as BROMA or CHISTE, but if you want to be more precise then it is neither.  There is not a one-word translation for WISECRACK,  but  we can say SALIDA GRACIOSA or SALIDA INGENIOSA.

"See? It's magic. It was not there ten seconds ago." CASPA is how we call in Spanish that white dust that appears in our shoulders when we have a condition in the scalp. It is particularly annoying because is usually accompanied by itching and sometimes also redness. Different factors may produce the appearance of CASPA and the disappearance of those factors may also mark the end of this problem.  CASPA is commonly an unusual amount of dead scalp cells, Then using shampoo appropriate to our scalp may be the solution. The word used in English is a little bit odd: DANDRUFF.  

"If I bark many times, is that a PET WORD?" A PET WORD or a PET PHRASE is a resource we use when we do not have anything better to say so we keep repeating the same word. It is like having a favorite word, one we use inadvertently one time too many. Well, OK, All right are the most common PET WORDS, but in general any expression used unnecessarily more than two or three times can be considered a PET WORD.  PET WORDS are called MULETILLAS or COLETILLAS in Spanish with Este and Bueno being the most common ones. 

Forests look great during the day, but in the SMALL HOURS... You can't, not at least using one word. MADRUGADA is specifically the time between midnight and sunrise.   Dawn and Sunrise are good alternatives, but they are not necessarily what we know as MADRUGADA in Spanish. A better choice would be EARLY MORNING, or more informally the SMALL HOURS, or the WEE HOURS. 

Einstein was STATELESS from 1896 to 1901. APÁTRIDA is an unusual word in Spanish (but it does exist). It is unusual because the condition it refers to is rarely seen: an APÁTRIDA is someone who lacks of citizenship for one reason or another (there are at least five of them) In English, APATRIDA is STATELESS, This condition is called Statelessness in English and Apatridia in Spanish. Though really Apatridia is even more unusual than APATRIDA in Spanish.

Amazingly, there are people who enjoy eating them. Sad but true. This one refers to a sad thing and that is the illegal trade of wild fauna, specifically African animals. Certainly there is illegal trade of animals from other parts of the world, but for some reason the term BUSHMEAT is  more commonly associated with African fauna. In this specific case wild animals are hunted not for their fur, but for their meat. BUSHMEAT literally means the meat of wild animals. It may also be called Game meat or Wildmeat.  There is not one word for this in Spanish. We only say CARNE DE ANIMALES SILVESTRES.  

"Ready for my SOJOURN! Oooppss, I didn't bring any toilet paper!" SOJOURN and STAY are similar terms with the difference that a SOJOURN is always temporary.  So, you SOJOURN when you stay for a few days in a place. It can be used as both a noun and a verb. The most likely translation in Spanish would be ESTANCIA or ESTADIA if the word is used as a noun. If SOJOURN is used as a verb, the translation is PASAR UNA TEMPORADA.

"Me? I don't do much thinking. I let my muscles do it for me. They're pretty good at it, y`know?" The most common synonym of JOCK is Athlete and as such in Spanish it would be that precisely: ATLETA, especially one who is still in high school or college. The problem is that JOCK is a word that really defines a stereotype, that one about athletes focusing only on their muscles and who do not rank high at any intellectual level, so to speak. So if you know someone who is into developing his body, but not his mind that is certainly a JOCK. I don't really think there is a word for that in Spanish but we do refer to them as QUE SON PURO MUSCULO PERO CON NADA EN EL CEREBRO.

"I wonder where is the rest of this timetable. Now we'll have to make it up!"  Though the expression RECOVERY SCHEDULE  is possible, that is not the same idea as HORARIO DE RECUPERACION when it is used in Spanish. If the situation is someone has been injured and needs to rest, or follow a routine, in order to get better then those hours are usually grouped under the label RECOVERY SCHEDULE.  In Spanish, at least in Ecuador, we use the expression HORARIO DE RECUPERACION in the educational field. If someone has been unable to comply with the regular study hours, still there is this other chance to make up for them. In that case, the most appropriate translation would be MAKE-UP SCHEDULE or MAKE-UP HOURS. 

"I got this T for just two dollar." E nglish is a redundant language just as much as Spanish is. There are plenty of examples, but here is one that concerns Spanish learners (Guayaquileans in particular). Street vendors often offer all sorts of objects from pencils to toy cars, from balloons to candy bars and all of them are (what a coincidence!) priced at one dollar and therefore offered at that price. Nevertheless, there are times when they ask for a higher price and then the following occurs: "¡Gafas a dos dólar !" they say. Of course, in Spanish that is a mistake. They should say: "¡Gafas a dos dólares ! (Shades at only two dollars!). Now, here is the question: are those vendors really wrong? Is it really incorrect to say two dollar (or dos dólar for that matter)? Is it 2 not more than 1 and thus already a plural? Guayaquilean street vendors are usually partially illiterate so using the word dollar always in singular regardless of the number is something