LAS LENGUAS INGLESA Y ESPAÑOLA de Delfín Carbonell

  Yes, grammar may be difficult to master, and vocabulary takes time to memorize, but phraseology is the wall all language learners, even natives find hard to overcome. A set of words, a sentence, that makes no sense taken at face value: "fall off a turnip truck", for instance, has nothing to do with turnips, trucks or even falling. Never mind about a push or a shove in the expression "when push comes to shove" because it really means that we must take action, and commit ourselves at the moment of truth when we really have to. If idioms, sayings, and phraseology present a true challenge, you can well imagine what it is to translate them into another language. I am finishing my THE LARGER PHRASEOLOGICAL DICTIONARY, ENGLISH AND SPANISH , after 4 years of intense work and dedication. The statistics are: a manuscript of 850,000 words. 33,000 idiomatic expressions. 33,500 samples of usage translated into the opposite language. 8,000 citations from publications in Hispani...

  Las palabras que comienzan con wh : what, when, where, white, which, whet, while , etc. se pueden pronunciar aspirando la h o no aspirándola. Se aspira en los Estados Unidos, Escocia, Irlanda y el Canadá. Así podemos pronunciar where , como “uéar”, o “juéar”. Si aspiramos la h podemos diferenciar witch de which ; whet de wet ; whether de weather , por ejemplo. En Inglaterra no se aspira, especialmente en el inglés llamado culto. Alfred Holt esplicaba: “The traditional British inability, or unwillingness, to make any distinction in sound between wet and whet …” 

  Our external appearance often conceals our inner woes because we do not wish to share our troubles with others because of respect. We keep our woes to ourselves or spare people our inner drama. Spanish has a very descriptive idiom for that feeling: "La procesión va por dentro." Religious processions or parades are stern, gloomy, and sad, after all, they normally occur during Holy Week. "I may look good and happy but... I am keeping my troubles to myself and not sharing them." "Puede que tenga buen aspecto y parezca feliz, pero la procesión va por dentro." Below is my entry PROCESIÓN in my Phraseological Dictionary: Ir la procesión por dentro Spare people one’s inner drama (troubles), keep one’s woes to oneself, grin and bear it, take it in stride, take it on the chin Pongo a mal tiempo buena cara, pero la procesión va por dentro I put a good face on a bad business but I spare people my inner drama — “Parece ser muy controlada, cuando dice que es ...

My article on bilingual phraseology, English-Spanish, is out, published by the Revista de la Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, no. 284. Please copy and paste:  Revista de la UADY https://www.revistauniversitaria.uady.mx/ru284.php Thank you. Hope you like it.

Today, I reflected on the intriguing disparity among my students when it comes to mastering languages. Some seem naturally gifted, while others struggle despite their best efforts. This phenomenon extends beyond language learning, resonating across many aspects of life. Matthew 22:14, "For many are called, but few are chosen,"  ( muchos son los llamados y pocos los elegidos ) offers a poignant lens through which to view this reality. This truth can serve as both a challenge and a comfort for those who pursue the path of language mastery, sometimes finding meager results despite their dedication. Why do some excel while others falter under seemingly similar conditions? This remains a mystery to me.  Life, as we know, is not always fair. I have devoted my life to mastering two languages, Spanish and English, while others, often younger, boast fluency in seven or more. Yet, I harbor no regrets. The journey has been deeply enriching, and I remain committed to achieving fluency, t...

  Like English ( I am writing ), Spanish has the progressive form ( estoy escribiendo ). In both languages, a distinction exists between the present simple and the present progressive: I eat bananas vs. I am eating bananas , or, in Spanish, como plátanos vs. estoy comiendo plátanos . However, English tends to use the progressive form more frequently, sometimes compensating for its lack of distinct inflected verb forms compared to Spanish. There are many nuances in the usage of the progressive form in both languages. When we chance upon a friend on the street we might ask her: "Where are you going?" and never "Where do you go?" In Castillian the reverse is true: we would never ask: "¿Dónde estás yendo?" but instead we will inquire: "¿Dónde vas?". And the answer is: "Voy al cine" and never "Estoy yendo al cine." I am no grammarian but upon consulting La Nueva gramática de la lengua española I find no answer as to whether I can...

  Perfect , perfecto es lo que es imposible de mejorar, impossible to improve , por lo tanto nada puede ser more perfect que otra cosa que ya es perfect. Sin embargo la gente insiste en este error en los dos idiomas. “…a clear, beautiful blue sky day that God couldn’t have made more perfect .” Terre Haute Tribune Star - ‎Oct 17, 2010‎. “…el más perfecto de todos los animales soy yo…” Camilo José Cela, Cristo versus Arizona , 1988.

  Sufijo diminutivo para sustantivos y adjetivos. De pig , cerdo, piglet , cochinillo. Wormlet, booklet, starlet, ringlet, cutlet, bracelet, wristlet, townlet, anklet.  Nabokov, autor de Lolita , llamaba a las nubecillas cloudlets.

  In English we have to be ; in French, être ; in German sein and in Spanish ser and estar . Those three languages make do with only one verb, and their speakers seem happy. Read below some of the Spanish possibilities and how English copes with them:   Ser listo                  to be clever Estar listo               to be ready Estar seguro           to be sure Ser seguro              to be safe Ser malo                to be bad, naughty Estar malo              to be sick, ill Ser bueno               to be good Es...

    Malas noticias para los románticos: love is blind. “We cannot tell the faults, physical or intellectual, of the object of our love, although we finally do, when it’s too late, of course. Wife Jan said: Love is blind—it’s deaf, too.” The Daily Mirror. (London: Mirror Group Newspapers, 1992). El amor es ciego y sordo, encima. No me cansaré de decir que amar es to love , y un amor a love. My love lives in Hong Kong , mi amor vive en Hong Kong (cuanto más lejos, mejor). Come here, love , ven aquí, cariño, amor mío. (Los cubanos traducen esto como “mi amol.”) La palabra love está muy devaluada en lengua inglesa: People love to eat, love football, love to drink … que tendremos que traducir por encantar , más que amar , claro. Podemos decir por ejemplo: Martha likes to work , a Marta le gusta trabajar. I love to play golf , me encanta jugar al golf. To fall in love , enamorarse. She fell in love with her teacher , se enamoró de su profesor. To be in love with , e...

  Cuando tecleo "for ever" el corrector lo corrige y sugiere "forever". Yo me resisto siempre que puedo. Los correctores de texto, de estilo, de gramática, tienen sus normas que yo no siempre acato porque no me convencen o porque simplemente son erróneas. Pero este asunto del "for ever" me irrita. Después de rebuscar, he llegado a la conclusión que en el inglés americano actual se prefiere "forever" aunque "for ever" es más "literario" y, quizá, más británico. Si consultamos bases de datos lingüísticas confirmaremos que ambas opciones se emplean. Mi diccionario Random House sólo menciona "forever". Podríamos perfectamente escribir: "She is for ever crying", se pasa la vida llorando, o "she is forever crying", y será igual y la tipa seguirá llorando tal cual. Caso resuelto, creo.  

Los idiomas son sonido. Esos sonidos los ha creado el hombre y por lo tanto cualquier sonido de cualquier idioma puede dominarse. Cierto es que los primeros sonidos del primer idioma que aprendemos de niños tienden a fosilizarse en el cerebro. Creo firmemente que podemos dominar nuevos sonidos de un nuevo idioma con la ayuda necesaria de un buen texto, un profesor dedicado y constancia y tesón. Debemos pronunciar bien para que nos entiendan mejor y para ser respetuosos con los nativos. No hay sonido inventado por el hombre que se le resista al hombre. Mi PHONÉTICA INGLESA (Oberón, 2015) no es un texto perfecto pero es, con la ayuda de un profesor, una manera expedita de dominar los sonidos de la lengua inglesa. Es posible aprender a pronunciar los sonidos de la lengua inglesa. Te lo digo yo.

  Como en castellano: bien hecho, bien hablado, bien ajustado: Well-adjusted            He is a well-adjusted student Well-articulated       A well-articulated speech Well-done                 A well-done job Well-fed                    His family is well-fed Well-written              A well-written book Well-known              A well-known writer Well-made                A well-made pair of shoes Well-spoken              A well-spoken boy  

  Because  Spaniards at large can appear sometimes so full of themselves, so uppity, on their high horse, I tend to denigrate and disparage myself when I describe my personality. I am in all truthfulness a real run-of-the-mill, below-the-salt, scholar-in-the-making person, nothing more. The word I use, tongue in cheek, is "pelagatos".  In less fortunate times, people were obliged to hunt stray cats for food but first, they had to skin them, "pelarlos"; this practice gives us the etymology of "pelagatos": a person who skins cats, a "cat skinner", or more broadly, a person of little significance. The DRAE defines it as: "persona insignificante o mediocre, sin posición social o económica" which fits me to a T.  Synonyms like pelafustán (layabout, good-for-nothing), pelagallos (nobody), paria (pariah), and mindundi (nobody) enrich its meaning. Meanwhile, Collins Bilingual Dictionary translates pelagatos as 'nobody,' a reduction...

Spanish-speaking people are obsessed with the cost of things. As soon as you meet one, she will tell you how much she paid for the car, house, the children's education. And they are hyperbolic about it! They will exaggerate to no end. Let me simply copy an entry from my Phraseological Dictionary to prove my point: Costar un ojo de la cara (una barbaridad, una pasta, potosí, Perú, Congo, huevo, riñón, una fortuna) Cost a pretty penny, an arm and a leg, a fortune, a bomb, the earth, a bundle La sortija me costó un ojo de la cara The ring cost me a pretty penny — “… como cuando quiso la pianola que me costó un ojo de la cara…” Ricardo Elizondo Elizondo, Setenta veces siete , 1987. Méx. || “Digo ahora maldito partido porque nos costó un huevo.” Diego Armando Maradona, Yo soy el Diego , 2000. Arg.

    Del latín ad libitum significa improvisar, al hablar o al tocar música. Es un verbo común y corriente en inglés, a pesar de las apariencias: ad libbed , ad libbing. Esto en la jerga del teatro se llama “morcillas” en español. “Half the time the cast ignored the script and ad-libbed.” (Nashua Telegraph, NH, 11/20/2008). “Having fun in the recording studio usually comes from ad-libbing.” (NewsOK.com, Nov. 6, 2008.) También tiene ad lib  el significado de a voluntad, a discreción: “Water can be given to the patient ad lib.” (Random House Dictionary.) When we forget our lines or what we were prepared to say, we must ad-lib.

Some expressions, turns of phrase, idioms, and manners of speaking are funny and often even shocking. In Spanish, as a way of consolation, and when something, a gift, a present, appears not to be up to the occasion, we say: "menos da una piedra" because no matter how much you squeeze them, stones render nothing. English has similar funny expressions, like "better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick,  better than a slap in the face (with a wet fish)."  It's a consolation.  Menos da una piedra Better than nothing, better than a slap in the face, better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick Me dieron un euro de propina que es poco, pero menos da una piedra I was given a one-euro tip which isn’t much but better than nothing — “Pero también se decía menos da una piedra…” Antonio Muñoz Molina, Sefarad , 2001. Esp.

  AAVE es una variedad del inglés, un dialecto empleado por la población de color (negra), que tiene las siguientes características: Se omiten is/are : You crazy? She my wife. Who you? La “s” de la tercera persona presente se omite: He write novels. Were se reduce a was siempre: They was here. Ain’t como negativo: I ain’t do that. Dobles negaciones: You ain’t going nowhere. Don’t por doesn’t en tercera persona: She don’t like nothing .es El genitivo sajón desaparece: My sister boyfriend. El acento, la fonética, ya es otro cantar. AAVE es diferente y tiene variantes entre estados y regiones. En internet podemos escuchar de viva voz este rico dialecto que tanto aporta al inglés estándar. Esta gramática se emplea también por blancos de las mismas regiones. 

  Se habla de a mutual admiration society cuando dos se alaban y se echan flores, y se emplea de manera sarcástica. “A mutual admiration society, eh?” says Ruth Rendell about two people who compliment each other, in her book The best man to die. ” (London: Arrow Books Ltd, 1981). La expresión la hizo popular la obra de Broadway Happy Hunting (1956) y la letra decía:  We belong to a Mutual Admiration Society My baby and me We belong to a Mutual Admiration Society   I think he’s handsome and he’s smart I think that she’s a work of art I say that he’s the greatest man And likewise I’m her biggest fan I say her kisses are like wine ............................................. Cosas curiosas del idioma que todo nativo sabe o debiera saber.

  When according to accounts we had 6500 different languages in the world, we were told that several languages died daily. I hear now that the number has increased to 7000. Those figures do not jibe. How are languages counted? Who decides between language and dialect? Who issues language death certificates? Do you remember Dalmatian? When Tuone Udaina died in 1898, the Dalmatian language died with him. He was the sole speaker left. We must assume that he spoke to himself only and managed to communicate in other languages or else he would have been unable to express his needs and ideas. This language lore does not wash with me.  There are American languages spoken by tribes of only 300 members. A language like that has no future not because it is more or less suitable for modern life but because the voice intercourse is very limited, although this is relative. I, for one, speaking English and Spanish can in theory communicate with over one thousand million people. In fact, some...

Fray Justo Pérez de Urbel (1895-1979),   fue catedrático de historia en la Universidad Complutense, medievalista, abad mitrado del Valle de los Caídos, rabioso franquista, y un buen profesor. Me colé en una de sus asignaturas de doctorado por despiste. Leí "Escritores españoles de la Edad Media lejana" que me pareció una asignatura interesante y sin reflexionar a qué escritores españoles "de la edad media lejana" pudiera referirse me apunté. El primer día de clase Fray Justo explicó que el tema versaba sobre "escritorios" españoles, no escritores. No había vuelta atrás. Pero el curso me resultó interesante y cada vez que oigo nombrar El nombre de la rosa , de Umberto Ecco , me viene a la memoria Fray Justo hablándonos de los escritorios medievales y los monjes amanuenses. Recibí un sobresaliente. Reseño esto como anécdota y el despiste de un doctorando de 23 años. 

Beside es una preposición que significa al lado de, junto a, a la vera de: He sat beside her , se sentó junto a ella. You’ll find the book beside the box , encontrarás el libro al lado de la caja caja. They had a picnic beside the river , hicieron una comida campestre a la vera del río. Pero ojo con las siguientes expresiones: To be beside oneself , estar uno fuera de sí. To be beside the point , No venir a cuento. No tener nada que ver con algo. Una etimología simple nos puede ayudar a comprender: be + side , estar al lado. No confundir jamás con besides .

  English-speaking people are more prone to making small talk about the weather than Spanish-speaking people of any latitude. Still, because they are copycats at heart, they mimic the conversation chit-chat of England and the USA.  And as winter is approaching, the whole Spanish-speaking world and his mother are reminded of how cold it is. This is an entry from my Phraseological Dictionary: Hacer un frío que pela (te cagas, te mueres, que corta los cojones, de mil demonios, de muerte, espantoso) Be cold as charity (hell), as a witch’s tit, as ice, as marble, be bleeding cold Hace un frío que pela hoy It’s cold as charity today — “En Erzurum… hace un frío que corta los cojones.” F. Sánchez Dragó, El camino del corazón , 1990. Esp. || “Aquí hace un frío que pela.” Paloma Pedrero, Invierno de luna alegre , 1989. Esp. || “Además, hace un frío de muerte.” Eduardo Mendoza, La verdad sobre el caso Savolta , 1975. Esp.

  Cierto es que los ingleses han dicho que "everybody talks about the weather but nobody does anything about it", y también es cierto que en verano se habla del calor y en invierno del frío. Ahora vamos a entrar en invierno y estamos ya medio ateridos. Para que puedan ustedes ponderar el frío que hace cuando hablen con un anglófono, les reseño esta entrada de mi diccionario fraseológico en ciernes: As cold as charity (a witch’s tit, ice, marbles, hell, the dickens) Frío que pela (que te cagas, que te mueres, que corta los cojones) It’s as cold as charity outside Hace un frío que pela ahí fuera — “My Dad says it’s as cold as a witch’s tit today.” PatrickTaylor, An Irish Country Girl , 2010. US. || “Cold as hell out there, right?” Lucky, 2011. US. || “Cold as the dickens.”  Daniel Black, Twelve Gates to the City , 2015. US. || “Eyes as hard and cold as marbles.” Savanna Welles, The Moon Tells Secrets , 2016. US.

To face the music es hacer frente a las consecuencias o castigo de las acciones cometidas. “I had desperately wanted to rush outside and leave the whole wretched affair behind me but something told me I had to stay and face the music.” Michael Falk, Part of the Furniture. (London: Bellew Publishing Company Ltd, 1991, pp. 1-146.) To keep a straight face es poner cara de poker, de juez, no inmutarse. “She tries to keep a straight face but she keeps cracking up.” Nigel Watts, Billy Bayswater. (Kent: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd, 1990). (Aquí cracking up significa desternillarse. ) Cuando estamos enfadados o contrariados ponemos a long face , cara larga: “No player, at a moment that mattered, ever saw Herbert Chapman with a long face.” Stephen Studd, Herbert Chapman. Football emperor. (London: Peter Owen Publishers, 1981). To lose face , perder credibilidad, avergonzarse. To make a face, to make faces , hacer, poner caras, muecas. Face to face with , cara a cara. On the fac...

Believe it, I am still teaching and think I am a better instructor than I was five years ago. My main purpose in class, aside from grammar, phonetics, and practice, is to keep my students motivated. Motivation and enthusiasm are the bedrock of language learning, which tend to whither with time, especially as students reach what they think is a plateau when they erroneously perceive no advance and feel stagnation in their studies. My method for motivating students is:  to congratulate them boisterously when they remember vocabulary or finally master or overcome a grammatical hurdle, or the enunciation of a difficult sound. I cheer loudly, clap my hands, congratulate them effusively, and make a big deal of their accomplishments. I also tell them that if others can be bilingual, and many people are, so can they. Why not?  Tips I pass on: 1. Daily study, even 15 or 20 minutes. 2. Approach vocabulary in context, in a sentence. 3. Repeat words and sentences out loud. 4. Memoriz...

I abhor   being patronized. I checked Blinkist  out of curiosity and went through some sort of entrance exam only to feel like a moron after completing it. Blinkist is supposed to be the tool to make you the smartest guy in the block. We are told that the pack leaders read 50 books a year. 50 books a year average about 1 per week which is pretty hefty. However, the people of Blinklist compress books that they digest for you down to 15 minutes.  This reminds me of Reader's Digest of old and their compressed books, except that it took longer than 15 minutes to read. Reader's Digest did a good job with  Friedrich von Hayek 's Road to Serfdom which reached millions of readers. But Blinkist is a horse of a different color and it is trying to sell us a bill of goods which I, for one, will not buy. Instant savvy, education, and culture, do not jibe with my way of seeing things. Speedwriting, speedreading, and speed culture are going to lead us to the ditch of ignorance b...

Parece ser que hoy, 23 de noviembre, celebramos el Día internacional de la palabra "con la finalidad de destacar la importancia de la comunicación en la sociedad a nivel mundial", nos dice Google. Esto me recuerda lo que decía mi profesor Mario Pei quien venía a decir que con los idiomas no se entiende la gente, y citaba la revolución rusa y la guerra civil española, donde los contrincantes hablaban la misma lengua pero no se entendían. Es ilusorio pensar que "hablando se entiende la gente", como dice el dicho español, y si no que se lo digan a palestinos e israelitas. Esto lo compruebo yo todos los días, en escritos, en charlas, conversaciones, cuando noto que los corresponsales e interlocutores no me entienden, o no quieren entenderme. Cierto es que ya hablo y escribo un castellano e inglés anticuados y pasados de moda, pero no difieren tanto del moderno y adelantado hablar de los jóvenes de ambos idiomas. A pesar de ese fallo en la comunicación, debemos intentar...

  Gypsies have been around for a long time although they are still living off the grid, refusing to join the "Spanish payo" ( entre los gitanos, el que no es de su raza ) society. Despite that secludedness, they have impacted customs, mores, music, and dance, especially in Spain. The centuries-long attitude of society towards them has also seeped into the language. We may still buy from a pastry shop a "brazo de gitano", "rollo de bizcocho relleno de nata, crema o trufa." But let me cite a few entries from my bilingual Spanish-English phraseological dictionary which might be taboo nowadays, but you judge: Ir (estar) hecho un gitano Look like a tramp, unkempt, shabby, out at the elbows No salgas a la calle así, vas hecho un gitano Don’t go out like that, you look like a tramp — “Anda, lávate. Vienes hecho un gitano.” José Asenjo Sedano, Eran los días largos , 1982. Esp. || “Pero lávate antes, que estás hecho un gitano.” Juan Antonio de Zunzunegui, El...

  Las fraseología que entra de contrabando, de polizón, en la lengua española es cada vez más. A medida que la cultura blinkist se instala en la humanidad, el esfuerzo de encontrar equivalentes a la fraseología se desdeña por la inmediatez y rapidez de la traducción literal. Este es el caso de si parece un pato, nada como un pato... que es la traducción blinklist de If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it's a duck! Pero en castellano tenemos la expresión A los cojos se les conoce por la manera de andar . Si vemos que uno que anda moviéndose de una manera rara, cojeando, podemos asegurar que es cojo. Más claro, agua. A los cojos se le conoce por su manera de andar I f it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck Sé qué tipo de persona es por lo que hace, que a los cojos se le conoce por su manera de andar I know what kind of a person he is by his actions, and actions speak louder than words — “Si a los cojos ...

  Siempre digo que no podemos fiarnos del inglés y su pronunciación. En el caso de nombres la fonética es más peligrosa si cabe. La tecnología moderna nos permite cerciorarnos en la red de cómo se pronuncian palabras o nombres en lengua inglesa. No tenemos excusa. Vemos unos ejemplos: Home                     se pronuncia   “jiúm” Coke                      se pronuncia  “cook” Wodehouse            se pronuncia   “búdjause” Powell                    se pronuncia  “poul” Sinclair                  se pronuncia...

English has invented the humorous expression enough to choke a horse to express the idea of an excessive quantity.  Spanish has para parar un tren to express the idea that the amount is so excessive that it could stop a train in its tracks: tiene dinero para parar un tren . Enough and to spare , enough to sink a ship, plenty and then more  are English variations. Para dar y tomar , para dar, vender y regalar are Spanish alternatives. Enough to choke a horse Para parar un tren I have a lot of work, enough to choke a horse Tengo mucho trabajo, para parar un tren — “Here’s a fine idea, much better than killing you, he said with venom enough to  choke a horse . ” Ian Irvine, A Shadow on  he Glass , 2009. US.  Para parar un tren (carro) Enough to choke a horse (to sink a ship), plenty and then more Tengo trabajo para parar un tren I have enough work to choke a horse — “Hay pruebas como para parar un tren.” Víctor Chamorro, El muerto resucitado , 1984. Esp. ...