EnglishisEasy/Elinglésesfácil

Here is another notorious case of Mother Tongue Interference: when Spanish speakers (and perhaps students of othe nationalitites as well) use the word HOMEWORK in  plural. This usually happens because we tend to forget that the word HOMEWORK is Noncountable while the same word in Spanish is Countable. In my experience I have seen students struggle with this problem even in higher levels because it is difficult to leave behind the old habit of quickly translating everything from English to Spanish. Perhaps a solution is to offer the L2 learner with another similar term. ASSIGNMENT is the most logical choice since it is a Countable noun. Curiously the word DEBER has multiple meanings and thus it is not only HOMEWORK, but also, and in a different context, is DUTY (as in a moral or ethical obligation), and if used as a verb it can also mean TO OWE. With so many meanings (there is a couple of others) is no wonder that Ecuadorian EFL students insist in saying HOMEWORKS.

What are all those cars doing? They are not traveling anywhere ( and yet in a way they are). What they are doing is called Commuting which is to travel regularly over some distance and not necessarily for pleasure. In other words, when you travel to work, or college, and back you are commuting.  IR AL TRABAJO is then COMMUTE TO WORK, and IR A LA UNIVERSIDAD can be expressed as COMMUTE TO COLLEGE. In Spanish we have the verb CONMUTAR which is COMMUTE, but is never used to refer to regular trips to work or college. Traveling is another activity that is expressed somewhat differently in English. While in Spanish we only say VIAJE and we make no difference if this happens by land or by the sea; in English a long trip by land is called a JOURNEY and if it is by the sea or space then it is called a VOYAGE. The word TRAVEL is often misused by early EFL learners who use TRAVEL instead of TRIP. It's common to hear from them: "A Travel to Europe" instead of "A Trip t

When I was a little kid both my parents worked the whole day which meant that my sister and I were looked after a babysitter, but really she did not do such a good job. Since we used to live in an apartment, getting out was no easy task, so most of the time we spent the afternoon just watching TV. Was it a fruitless activity? Perhaps, but when I weigh my past life and remember all the time I was in front of a TV I realize there were things that I learned that I could not have acquired from any other source.  One of those sources was none other that this cartoon show: The Super Friends that united the greatest comic book heroes to face their enemies on a regular basis. Usually the good guys had the upper hand, but then in one episode called The Monolith of Evil the Legion of Doom (that's the bad guys' group) stumbles upon a most  unexpected discovery, an object so powerful it could grant any wish. The Justice League (the Super Friends) can do nothing against the onslaught

Ha sido una larga espera, una muy larga, pero por fin. Ver a Barcelona campeón es saber que hoy muchas personas son felices, personas que hace mucho no habían sido tan felices. Hoy es cuando todos aquellos que tenían dos o tres años la última vez que Barcelona obtuvo el título podrán ver a su equipo campeón y sabrán lo que se siente. Es extraordinario sin embargo ver cómo todo se ha dado. Así cómo Barcelona luchó duro para llegar a este sitio también Emelec intentó lo propio jugando con convicción y ganando varios partidos en seguidilla anclado a la posibilidad de que las cosas se le dieran. Hoy contra el Dep. Quito pensé que iba a ser igual y que quizás tocaría esperar hasta el próximo domingo, ya en diciembre, para que esto se dilucide y no fue así. Dos goles, uno tempranero y otro casi al final, sentenciaron a Emelec. Y as Barcelona es campeóní, sin patear la pelota una sola vez, en Quito, una fecha antes de que termine el campeonato y con Emelec enfrentando a un equipo que no era

When we say JUDGMENT (also spelled JUDGEMENT) that does not imply a legal situation necessarily, probably we are talking about using our common sense. That is referred to as using “our good judgment”. When we make certain decisions with a moral or ethical connotation then we say “we are passing judgment”. Of course this is not right unless we have been conferred a certain degree of authority either by the society we live in or a superior authority. In legal cases the word JUDGMENT is not used and the term TRIAL is preferred instead. That does not occur in Spanish since for both situations we use the same word and only the context reveals the difference. To go to trial indicates that one individual is going to be accused of some specific charge and therefore will have to use his or her right to defend himself or herself. There will be then an attorney (a litigant lawyer) accusing, trying to prove that the accused is indeed guilty and the there will be another lawyer defending, try

Kratos, the main character in the God of War series and the most iconic character created to be played in the Playstation consoles, is dead and still he keeps coming back and every time he does, he is better than ever. Sure, the real god of war was Ares and in fact he appears in the first installment of the series as such. In this story Kratos is a Spartan warrior, the fiercest and most ruthless of them all. During a war against a superior enemy, Kratos summons Ares and asks for help against his enemy. As a response the god sends him a pair of blades that through magical chains gets forever attached to his arms and becomes his principal weapon and the means to most of his devastating attacks. The bloodthirsty warrior gets his revenge and thus, Kratos becomes a servant of the gods and does all their dirty work. In order to make sure Kratos will forever be their puppet, Ares secretly engineers a scheme and sends his champion to destroy a village. Cruel and undefeatable, Kratos kill

I must say that this is and is not a good movie. It tells the story of Hoover rising to the position that would define the way the U.S. government dealt with internal affairs: by being practical but also ruthless and even merciless. Hoover is presented as a man who is full of flaws, who is tormented by his condition of being homosexual in a very intolerant society, and who ultimately believed that all his machinations could not be questioned, not even by himself, because his way was right. The way the story is set and how the time he lived is presented is accurate. The music is only Ok, but the way the story is told lacks of a good rhythm or pacing. Naomi Watts as Helen Gandy, Hoover's trusted secretary, and Judie Dench as Anna  Marie Hoover, Hoover's mother are wonderful but their performances suffer for the little time of their appearances.Luckily, the movie relies heavily on Di Caprio and that is right and also wrong. Perhaps that is the problem. Really if there is s