LAS LENGUAS INGLESA Y ESPAÑOLA de Delfín Carbonell

       You probably know by now that love is funny. When we fall in love, we are so dizzy, so completely on cloud nine, that we forget the object of our affection does not exist in isolation. They come with family, friends, pets, colleagues—in short, a whole social world.      Languages have long recognized this and remind us with proverbs. In English we say, Love me, love my dog. If you love me, you must also love my dog, my family, my friends—the whole kit and caboodle.      Castilian Spanish has a similar saying: Quien bien quiere a Beltrán, bien quiere a su can. If you love Beltrán, you must also accept his dog—and, by extension, his family, his friends, and all the rest. I'm not making this up. Here are a few examples: — "Love me, love my dog. If you want to be friendly with me, you must be friendly with my dog—and with my companions." A. Johnson, Common English Proverbs (1958, UK). — "Love me, love my dog." Gettysburg Review ,...

La claridad es esencial en la comunicación verbal y escrita. El posible doble sentido en nuestro discurso, en la frase o palabra, que puede interpretarse de varias maneras, se llama anfibología . Y no es que lo que decimos se pueda entender bien, sino que es necesario que de ningún modo se pueda dejar de entender. Esto es primordial y por eso debemos evitar una posible anfibología: lo que decimos tiene que estar claro y debe entenderse. Podemos incurrir en importantes errores de interpretación que pueden costar caro gracias a la ambigüedad del enunciado.   Ejemplos : César o cesar /  Ingles o inglés /  Sólo o solo  “Macario habló solo/sólo diez minutos.” “Estaré en Barcelona solo / sólo una semana.” /  Me encanta que hagas paella y me gusta también la tortilla de patatas. La próxima semana la haces. /  Y resultando que no, debe condenarse al reo a.., /  Hablaban con él de sus cosas (¿Las de él o las de ellos?) /  Todos ellos fueron con él a s...

In an earlier post I mentioned the usage of "aquí" and "acá", in European Spanish vs American Spanish. This summer a colleague of my daughter's, Violeta, originally from Perú, in a café terrace in Madrid, was bantering about "por la mañana" and "en la mañana". She kept correcting herself, pointing out the difference in the usage of the preposition. This is another giveaway as to where the speaker hails from. "En la noche oigo ruidos raros" will tell you the speaker is not from Spain because she would have said: "Por la noche oigo ruidos raros." Is this important? Only if you use either preposition and a "native", a local, corrects you. Do not argue. Never argue about questions grammatical with average native speaker. 

Languages solve communication problems in different ways. One area where English is remarkably efficient is in asking about degrees. Once we know that a quality exists, we can simply place how before the corresponding adjective or adverb to ask about its extent: How expensive was the car? How tall is Bob? How far is Barcelona from Madrid? How difficult was the exam? The same pattern works with an enormous range of adjectives, making it both simple and highly productive. Spanish, however, does not seem to have a single, equally general construction. Depending on the country, one may hear questions such as ¿Qué tan lejos está...? , ¿Qué tan rico es tu novio? , or the more formal ¿Cuán lejos está...? These are perfectly natural in some varieties of Spanish but uncommon or even odd in others. Rather than relying on one universal pattern, Spanish tends to express the same ideas through different constructions. For example, instead of asking How far is Barcelona from Madrid? , many spe...

No hace mucho cuando las lavadoras caseras, llamadas en inglés washing machines , tenían dos rodillos con los que se escurría ( wring ) el exceso de agua, una vez lavada la ropa y antes de ponerla a secar. Había que ir con cuidado para no pillarse los dedos. Y de esto nació la expresión inglesa Go (put) through the wringer que aún perdura aunque las lavadoras de las que hablo hace tiempo que desaparecieron.  “She may have had the voice of a young girl, but her tone suggested a middle-aged woman who’d been through the wringer a few times.” ( Azalea, 01/01/2018. US.) Pasarlas canutas, moradas, negras mal, tiene el equivalente inglés de go through the wringer .  

Allow me a personal note today. It is July, which for me is also a cruel month, mingling memory with the few remains of desire. It marks the departure of Laura, the bird who flies each year from San Francisco, perches in my soul, and sings sweet tunes that cheer my tired brain. Though I know the journey demands an effort, she unfailingly brings us joy and leaves us smiling. Now she returns to her school, to the pupils she loves, and to the hard work of being an example worth following. Godspeed, Laura. We shall be waiting for your yearly flight back, whose warmth lingers long after your wings have disappeared from sight.