LAS LENGUAS INGLESA Y ESPAÑOLA de Delfín Carbonell

  Hacer feliz Make happy Mi mujer no me hace feliz My wife doesn´t make me happy Feliz como una perdiz (más feliz que una perdiz) Without a care in the world, happy as can be, happy as a lark (clam) Estoy más feliz que una perdiz desde que Trump desapareció I am without a care in the world since Trump disappeared / Desde mi divorcio que estoy más feliz que una perdiz Since my divorce I am as happy as can be Final feliz Happy ending El matrimonio no tuvo un final feliz The marriage did not have a happy ending Prometérselas uno muy felices Have happy prospects, high hopes David se las prometía muy felices cuando le ofrecieron el empleo, pero no sabía lo que se le venía encima David had happy prospects when he was offered the job, not knowing what was coming to him — “… pero al fin me las prometía muy felices.” José María Guelbenzu, El río de la luna , 1981. Esp. Y vivieron felices y comieron perdices And they lived happily ever after Y se casaron y vivieron feli...

  A feast fit for a king Un festín digno de un rey It was a feast fit for a king Fue un festín digno de un rey — “Well then he deserves a feast fit for a king.” Kieran Wasserman, The Battle for Eire , 2005. US. After a (the) feast (dinner) comes the reckoning Después de un gustazo, un trancazo, al freír será el reír, y al pagar será el llorar Now we must pay the bill, after a feast comes the reckoning Ahora tenemos que abonar la cuenta, después de un gustazo, un trancazo — “After the feast  comes the reckoning  a period of pleasure or indulgence has to be paid for; recorded from the early 17th century, but now chiefly in modern North American use.” Elizabeth Knowles, The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable , 2006. UK Feast one´s eyes on Regalarse la vista con I feasted my eyes on the cakes Me regalé la vista con los pasteles

I´m not going to get into a shaggy-dog story, a complicated, long, and tedious story that is very boring ( cuento de la buena pipa ), but it never fails, it happens every time, always, ( es matemático ), whenever I turn the tv set on, soccer is the main subject, and this soccer business is taking its toll on my nerves, causes damages and suffering   ( me está pasando factura ). It is true that these days my outlook on things is from fair to middling ,   not good but not bad either, so-so,  ( regulín-regulán ). But I digress...     

  Be a close-knit family Familia muy unida David pertenece a una familia muy unida David belongs to a close-knit family Be from a good family Ser de buena familia John is from a very good New York family Juan es de una buena familia neoyorquina Be in the family way Estar en estado de buena esperanza Is your wife in the family way? ¿Está tu mujer en estado de buena esperanza? Be like a member of the family (part of the family) Ser de la casa, como de la familia John is like a member of the family Juan es de la casa Family jewels Los testículos, genitales The rock hit him in the family jewels and was taken to the hospital La roca le golpeó en los genitales y le trasladaron al hospital Family ties Lazos familiares I have family ties in Hong Kong Tengo lazos familiares en Hong Kong Happen in the best families Pasar (ocurrir) en las mejores familias That happens in the best families Eso pasa en las mejores familias It stays in the family Todo queda en casa ...

  Siempre que oigo la frase: "las mejores croquetas del mundo" o "la mejor paella de Zamora", o "el mejor bocadillo de calamares de Madrid" me entra una cierta melancolía. Me apena que se emplee eso de "lo mejor" con tanta alegría a la par de con tanta falta de respeto y de interés científico. El idioma debiera ser preciso y responder a una sólida base fehaciente y demostrable. Emplear las palabras alegremente, sin ton ni son, apesadumbra, entristece y desuela, por lo menos a mí. "El mejor español se habla en X" o "la mejor pronunciación inglesa se oye en X" son frases hueras que nada tienen que ver con la realidad. "Mejor" ya se ha convertido en una palabra hiperbólica que debemos tomar  cum grano salis, como decían los latinos. Además, ya sabemos que "the best is the enemy of the good" o "lo mejor es enemigo de lo bueno." Ahí queda eso, para reflexionar cuando te hablen de la "mejor" ...

  En su muy interesante artículo sobre el error, intitulado "Fe de erratas" (El País, 4 febrero, 2023), Irene Vallejo lo termina emplazándonos a "no tener miedo al error." ¡Ah! Esta recomendación, aunque buena, me llega tarde. He vivido teniéndole al error no ya miedo, sino pavor. Un calvario al dar conferencias, clases en el aula, al escribir artículos para revistas, componiendo libros y diccionarios, siempre con la sombra, larga y malintencionada del error, de la posible errata, agazapados tras de mí.  No le deseo este Vía Crucis del error a nadie, ni a los gobernantes que tenemos ahora, que ya es decir (aunque a ellos parece no aquejarles esta aflicción.) Además, para ponerlo peor, he tenido que pasarme la vida corrigiendo los errores de los demás, y ya sabemos que a nadie le gusta que le corrijan. He sido más popular en esto que La chata . Gracias mi admirada Irene Vallejo , pero no puedo seguir su consejo: el error debe evitarse. Y debe evitarse porque demuestr...

  El imperativo expresa la voluntad del que habla de que el que escucha ejecute un acto. El oyente es siempre segunda persona singular o plural. Para el resto de las personas emplearemos el subjuntivo: (tú)                  compra           no compres (vosotros)        comprad         no compréis. Oiremos y leeremos el infinitivo: “callar” por “callad”; “tirar” por “tirad”. En los pronominales leeremos siempre sentaros aquí , por sentaos aquí.  Este uso del infinitivo está ya tan arraigado en el idioma que decir “venid aquí” por “venir aquí” parece engolado y barroco. Usted haga lo que quiera. (De mi Hablar y escribir con corrección , 2ª Ed., Editatum, 2022.)

Sauntering about town, watching traffic jams, skirting bicycles and skateboarders on sidewalks, I often catch myself humming. Waiting for a traffic light to change, fellow pedestrians pull their eyes away from their cell phone screens and stare at me as a weirdo. Someone humming a tune in public is suspect nowadays. But I digress. The lowdown about this humming business is that the tunes that come to my mind while strolling are usually jingles and bits of children’s songs that my grandfather and my mother sang to me at the onset of my life. Often, I cannot recall from whom, or even when, I heard those songs that clutter my mind, but they are there, ready to pop up and bring a smile to my otherwise sullen face. Oliver Sacks refers to this phenomenon as “Musical hallucinations” in his book Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain. Now I know the great benefits of putting music and words together. Children’s songs have catchy music to them, and simple, sometimes nonsensical, lyrics...

  We were spending the summer at a gated community, outside the city, and my son Oscar was about four years old. Children had the run of the place and were having a blast. He had made many friends his age, and spent all day cycling, swimming, and playing soccer... We were new to the place that year. One day I was strolling along and saw Oscar with some buddies. I approached the circle and said something to him in ENGLISH, the language I have communicated with my children with since they were born. All the children stared at me wide-eyed. Their eyes grew even wider when they heard him answer in what, for them at that time, was a strange language. And for the first time in his life, Oscar realized that speaking two languages at home was not “normal” and that the rest of the families spoke only one. Up to that point in his short life, he had not realized that bilingual families were not the norm. After this incident, Oscar stopped talking to me in English. He did not enjoy being “...

Heraclitus of Ephesus, the Greek man of wisdom who lived five hundred years before Christ, said, observing nature, “everything is in a state of flux”, meaning that everything is forever changing and that no man ever steps in the same river twice because the water is ever flowing. The nature of the universe is change, movement, development and nothing is static.   Language cannot escape the dictum of the Greek philosopher in its natural change and evolution. However, the laws of linguistic change are often stymied by outside forces and circumstances that impede the inherent development of language.   When two tongues live together and share the same territory inhabited by the same people, a new phenomenon of change occurs in phonology, grammar and vocabulary. This factor is unavoidable and difficult to deal with or even halt. The use of two languages in daily social intercourse poses challenges that one-language societies do not have or even understand.   Since 1898 ...

Of late I have been toying with the idea of going back to school so as to keep my neurons on track and on their toes. I thought I would try La UNED ( Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia ). It is a severe and prestigious university. I must keep up to speed with the times and new tendencies in my field. So I looked at the department´s offering and this subject caught my eye:  Pragmática de la Lengua Inglesa  ( pertenece a la materia denominada   Lenguaje y Comunicación .) The course description is this: "Esta asignatura pretende formar a los estudiantes en el conocimiento de los principios que regulan el uso del lenguaje en la comunicación humana en lengua inglesa. Se hará especial hincapié en las condiciones que determinan el empleo del lenguaje y los enunciados apropiados por parte de hablantes concretos en situaciones comunicativas reales, así como su interpretación por parte de los correspondientes receptores. Por tanto, los estudiantes habrán de fa...

  Ser fácil de Be easy to Eso es fácil de hacer That´s easy to do Ser fácil de decir Be easy to say, easier said than done Eso es fácil de decir, pero no de hacer That´s easier said than done — “Eso es fácil de decir pero difícil de cumplir.” Jorge Almeida, Cómo cuidar un niño , 1975. Arg. Ser fácil que Be likely to, possible Es fácil que Juan venga el jueves John is likely to come Thursday — “... es fácil que el caso de Juan Diego se convierta en una estadística más...” El Tiempo, 24/9/1996. Colom. Tenerlo fácil Have it easy Lo tienes fácil porque tu padre es rico You have it easy because your father is rich — “Con Lupe lo tienes fácil; a esa por un pico te la tiras cuando quieras.” Rafael Mendizábal, Mala yerba , 1989. Esp.

George Bernard Shaw , en su Prefacio a Pygmalion , A Professor of Phonetics , que luego fue una película, My Fair Lady , escribió sobre las dificultades de la fonética y ortografía inglesas: “The English have no respect for their language, and will not teach their children to speak it. They spell it so abominably that no man can teach himself what it sounds like. It is impossible for an Englishman to open his mouth without making some other Englishman hate or despise him.” Esto lo escribió en 1916, y lo podía haber escrito hoy. Todo sigue igual. Y lo que es peor: no puede cambiar. Creerás que es una perogrullada que explique que el lenguaje es sonido, voz viva, oralidad, y que por eso una lengua se considera muerta cuando ya nadie la habla. Digo esto porque hay muchos que creen que el aprendizaje de un idioma extranjero se basa sólo en frases, en cuestiones gramaticales, y no enfatizan lo más importante: el sonido, la pronunciación correcta. Luego pasa lo que pasa: que no nos entien...

  A mon avis, l´ Academie Française est une institution de grand prestige en France et aussi, naturellement, dehors d´elle. Et aussi à mon avis, Mr. Mario Vargas Llosa et un grand écrivain... mais, hélas, en espagnol. Pour ça je ne comprende pas que fait Mr. Vargas Llosa á l´ Académie. Com diría un valencià, tanca la porta i anem-nos!

  Except for two short Republics and a long Dictatorship, Spain has been and is a Constitutional Monarchy. Felipe VI is the present king. And of all 22 Spanish-speaking countries it is the only monarchy, the rest being republics or dictatorships. And yet, references to the institution abound in all those countries where lovers refer to one another as "mi rey, rey mío, mi reina, reina mía" and in every one of those countries the babyboy is "el rey de la casa", and not the "presidente de la casa." The babygirl is, of course, "la princesa (reina) de la casa" and will be referred to as "mi princesa" or "princesa mía" by either parent. I could go on and on, but I have made my point: language has nothing to do with politics or forms of government. And all Hispanic teenagers dream of a "príncipe azul" to come and sweep them off their feet.  

  In English and Spanish, there are words that are the same, with the same etymology, with the same meaning, but more currency in one language than in the other. A case in point to illustrate this idea is the words "ordeal" and "ordalía".  ORDEAL : "a primitive form of trial to determine guilt or innocence by subjecting the accused person to fire, poison, or other serious danger, the result being regarded as a divine or preternatural judgment." ORDALÍA : "Prueba ritual usada en la Europa medieval y en ciertas sociedades para averiguar la culpabilidad o inocencia de una persona acusada y una de cuyas formas es el juicio de Dios."  Both definitions are similar, but English dictionaries give an additional one: "any extremely severe or trying test, experience, or trial." For this additional meaning, we must use the Spanish "calvario", (padecimiento muy intenso y prolongado)  instead of "ordeal" because the Spanish "...

  Just as there are word detectives (Cf. John Simpson´s The Word Detective ), I have become a Bilingual Phrase Sleuth. I track, trace, and nail down equivalent phrases in English and Spanish. Traits to become a lexicographic bilingual phrase sleuth are stubbornness, hard work, constant alertness, reading, time, and carloads of patience. Pay no heed to those who praise the wonders of the internet and databanks sky high. We still have a long way to go in bilingual lexicography. While we wait for the Internet and Google to become linguistically serious, let me tell you an English idiom: Get up on one´s hind legs ,  become assertive, aggressive, belligerent, etc., according to Webster´s New World Dictionary, 2nd Ed.  "McBride then got up on his hind legs and told them he and his mates would kiss what girls they wanted to." (Louis A. Mayer, Under the Jolly Roger , 2007.) "David finally got up on his hind legs and told the boss what he thought of him." The phrase sleuth h...