EnglishisEasy/Elinglésesfácil

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.