EnglishisEasy/Elinglésesfácil

And Drinking inside a Bottle is forbidden, too! Though most people would say, and they would be right, DRY LAW the most appropriate term is PROHIBITION OF ALCOHOL. Perhaps the problem with that is that in the U.S. there was a PROHIBITION OF ALCOHOL (usually nicknamed The Prohibition) in the first part of the 20th century. That law is perhaps one of the most famous ever and is referred to in several movies or TV series such as The Untouchables.        Though that law may no longer be in existence other "DRY LAWS" are ordered around the world existing for a brief period that extends since  a day or two before elections to a day or two after such event. DRY LAWS are then measures taken to help safeguard peace as people decide who or what to vote for. 

Saving Mr. Banks is one of those films that take you to a time and place where things were different, less complicate. Well, not for Walt Disney (Tom Hanks) who tried to convince Pamela Travers (Emma Thomson) to give him the film rights to Travers's masterpiece,  Mary Poppins.   To Disney's surprise, Travers was always reluctant to grant the rights and he didn't understand why. The movie tells us that precisely: why Mary Poppins stories and the characters were so important to her author and the lengths Disney and his collaborators had to go in order to finally convince Ms. Travers that Mary Poppins was in good hands. There are many things about this film that stand out but especially Hanks, Thomson and Collin Farrell as Ms. Travers's father; they all deliver great performances, and even the secondary characters look great. Also the recreation of the diverse settings of this story (California, London and Australia) is perfect with a great attention to detail. Fina

Dean Martin  (1917-1995) CROONING is singing. If you're CROONING you're actually singing, but in a very distinct manner. When you CROON (that's the verb) you sing in a soft, also sentimental, way. Among the many singers who made CROONING part of their presentations we have Tonny Bennet, Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby and the great Dean Martin. Curiously, a CROONER is always a male singer and only very few female singers are considered CROONERS. What is the equivalent in Spanish? There is not one word to define CROONING in Spanish. Apparently, this term comes from an old German word (kronen) that meant lament . The word made its way to English but not Spanish to become what is today.

Don't worry. I got my license yesterday! The answer is there is not a word for that in Spanish.  CARPOOLING means sharing the same vehicle. This is especially useful during long journeys when different people occupy the driver's seat whenever one of them fells tired. There are other ways to understand CARPOOLING. Workers in the same company who live relatively closer to one another may agree sharing the specific duty of picking the others in his or her car on a certain day or days. Another will do the same on the following day and so on according to the number of people that participate in this activity ( five is the ideal number).  CARPOOLING is thus considered an environment-friendly way to optimize resources and in some places is even encouraged.  It is not that Spanish speakers do not CARPOOL. We do, but why there is not a word for that in our language is beyond me.

Am I beside or besides you? Both and none. Both are correct but each one has a different function. BESIDE is a preposition and should be used to indicate the place where someone or something is located regarding someone or something else. In this case BESIDE is a synonym of Next To. e.g. You will find your pencil BESIDE your notebook. BESIDES has a different purpose since it means In Addittion To . e.g. Here's the money your father sent you. BESIDES  you already had money of your own.

The word FÚLMINE used here is actually a name. FÚLMINE is a character created by Guillermo Divito (1914-1969), an Argentinian cartoonist. FÚLMINE was a bad-luck bringer though nothing bad happened to him but to those he talked to. If something good happened to one character it was bad news if FÚLMINE was around. Whatever good happened the opposite was bound to occur once FÚLMINE left. The character became somewhat popular in Latin America and in Ecuador the character's name is commonly associated to those who are believed to bring bad luck. Public figures are favorite targets of this misplaced action. Not long ago the current Ecuadorian president attended a soccer match to see his favorite soccer team play. Needless to say his team lost as it happened the last time the president attended a previous match. This team's fans "figured out" that the president was a FÚLMINE,  a belief that with good humor the president himself decided to share so he stopped attending

A Portmanteau is not a port and it is not a word, but a combination of words and their meanings into one. One good example of that is the word Info mercial which is the result of the blending of the words Information and  Commercial . A Portmanteau takes from the meanings of the words that were used to make it up and at the same time it does not because it is created to refer to a new concept. Here is another example:  Br unch , a term that results from the combination of the words Breakfast and  Lunch. It is neither but that quick meal that you take in the mid-morning, too late for breakfast and too early for lunch. What is the translation of Portmanteau in Spanish? There is none for the meaning used here, but Portmanteau may also refer to what in Spanish is called BAUL DE VIAJE. The name Guayaquil would be another example of a portmanteau.