LAS LENGUAS INGLESA Y ESPAÑOLA de Delfín Carbonell

 By now, all and sundry must know that I read with a pencil in hand to highlight passages, phrases, and words, both known and unknown.  or me, reading is an act of learning. I am well past halfway through Barbara Kingsolver's Demon Copperhead, and today I underlined the word midrift as odd-sounding. I underlined it and looked it up. Sure enough, the word should be spelt midriff , "the middle part of the body, between the chest and the waist." Ms. Kingsolver says at the end of her novel: "Every draft of this book was improved by advice from insightful readers..." and names a few of them. The author might reply and remind us that the narrator is, on page 302, only 15. The argument will not hold water because Demon uses ten-dollar words throughout,  far more difficult than midriff.  Unless the misspelling was deliberate—and I doubt it—it appears to have slipped past both the author and her readers.  

  HANDSOME HANDSOME Es guapo, guapa y se aplica a hombres y a mujeres de buen ver, pero llenitas y maduritas, "jamonas" que decían antaño.  Si la mujer está delgadita, jamás se le aplicará este término, por muy guapa que sea. Una muchacha delgada puede ser pretty , good-looking o incluso beautiful , pero nunca handsome .  En inglés, handsome no se limita a las personas: se habla de a handsome salary , a handsome fortune , a handsome house , es decir, de algo que resulta generoso, espléndido, atractivo . Así, podemos decir: Mary’s husband is very handsome — El marido de Mary es muy guapo. Una palabra con empaque, que sugiere proporción, sustancia y presencia. Úsala a menudo. 

  Ayer, leyendo, aprendí una palabra nueva: woolgathering . Parece que tiene algo que ver con recolectar, con recoger, gather , lana, wool . Las palabras no siempre son ni significan lo que parecen a simple vista y debemos estar en guardia y no dejarnos engañar por las apariencias. Mi Random House Webster's Dictionary me dice que "woolgathering is indulgence in idle fancies and in daydreaming." El verbo es "to woolgather." ¿Se usa? Pues claro, y transcribo citaciones: --"It jerked Stosh out of his woolgathering." Science Fiction and Fact, Nov-/Dec., 2017. US. --"... to go off woolgathering about the future. Nope." Ann Parker, What Gold Buys, 2017. US. --"Sorry, I was woolgathering. Amy recovered her composure." Colleen Coble, Rosemary Cottage, 2013. US.  Andar distraído, estar en Babia, fantasear, quedarse absorto...

  READING will always be the only way to add words to your vocabulary. In everyday life, speakers of a language commonly employ the same terminology and phraseology. In contrast, writers try to improve the way they express their ideas by choosing the right word or turn of phrase. In a newspaper or novel, the learner will find more new words to add to his trove. Remember that the more vocabulary and phraseology you own, the better you can express yourself.  

  WROUGHT Participio arcaico del verbo to work , trabajado, labrado, forjado, que se emplea en casos como wrought iron , hierro forjado, overwrought , alterado, wrought up , alterarse, ponerse nervioso. He became very overwrought when she came in , se alteró mucho cuando ella entró.

  La lengua inglesa, como la castellana, forma muchas palabras nuevas juntando varias ya conocidas: coliflor, agridulce, bajamar, contradecir, por ejemplo. Veamos algunas en inglés: Pigpen            cochiquera Flowerpot       maceta Ladybug          mariquita (insecto colióptero) Eyelid                 párpado Handbag         bolso Afternoon        tarde Newstand        quiosco Armpit             sobaco Armchair           sillón Horseman       jinete Eggplant         berenjena Farmhouse   ...

       Cuando en un idioma tenemos una palabra y en el otro tres, las explicaciones se complican. Por eso n o es fácil explicar la diferencia exacta entre “ big, large ” y “ great ”, pero se puede intentar. Big , grande. Es la palabra más empleada para referirse al tamaño y la extensión de objetos concretos. Large , es más formal y great es mucho más imponente e incluso poético: hablamos de “ a big tree ” , o “ a large tree ” o “ a great sequoia. ” Cuando tratamos de grados o qualidades empleamos “great” : “ great beauty , Alexander the Great , a great mistake , a great novel ” , y aunque se emplea también “ big ” , en el caso de “ Alexander the Big ” , o “ a big novel ” , se referirían a lo grande que son físicamente. Great , se emplea para fama, cantidades, seriedad, relevancia, notabilidad: “ Napoleon was great , a great decision , a great expense. ” Desgraciadamente y en lenguaje común y corriente todos estos matices se diluyen y se intercambian de manera not...

  Remember "walkie-talkies"? This gadget was used to "chit-chat" with distant friends prior to the cell phone. Far from being "teeny-weeny", they were bulky and cumbersome and became part of the "nick-knacks" we had and which, somehow, made us feel "goody-goody" in the "hurly-burly" of our daily lives. "Okey-dokey", let me tell you now that I still feel in "tip-top" shape, although some of my contemporaries seem to be somewhat "ga-ga" and they believe the "mumbo-jumbo" TV dishes out to the "riff-raff." Of course, I do know there´s a lot of "hocus-pocus" and "hanky-panky" going on in the media, often as apocryphal (fake) news.  The duplication of sounds to make new words is a characteristic of English we accept "willy-nilly" without giving it much thought. And these duplications have been around for centuries. Some of the resulting words may be hyph...

A cookie is a baked small cake. But it has many different meanings, some even funny: A cookie is a person: a smart cookie, "un listillo." A pretty young woman: Mary is a cookie, "un bomboncito." Cookie is a term of affection, "chatita." (Un poco condescendiente ahora.) A cookie is a computer code to trace what you are looking at (We use cookies...) In the UK "biscuit" (bískit)  is prefered to "cookie", although the two might be different. Tough cookie, un tipo peligroso. Cookie jar, donde las guardamos."Be caught with your hand in the cookie jar" pillar a uno con las manos en la masa. Fortune cookie, galleta que nos dan en restaurantes chinos. That's the way the cookie crumbles, "así es la vida." And the best of the very best: Chocolate-chip cookies!

Muchas palabras se forman por acortamiento de otras y permanecen en el idioma. En castellano tenemos finde, fin de semana; gran, grande; san, santo, un, uno. Por ejemplo: (Omni) bus   Fan (anatic)  Fridge (refrigerator)  (tele) phone   Prep (aration)  Vet (erinary)  Spec (ulation)  Rev (olution)  Mike (crophone)  (violon) cello   Pro (fessional  Recap (itulate)   Pub (lic house)   Stats (statistics).

BLOGLOVIN’ always manages to bring interesting read to my attention. The latest that caught my eye is “Smart & Simple: The Best Way to Sew on a Button.” In a few simple steps it tells you, in clear and easy-to-understand English, how to go about replacing a lost button. Now, teachers of English normally tell you to read newspapers, novels, short stories, poems… but they never suggest reading instructions on, for example, how to sew on a button. In this article you will learn about verbs like to blend, to gather, to lay, to pull, to insure and words like fabric, needle, thread, stitch (remember that a stitch in time, saves nine )… and you will be able to discover new meanings to old words. Plus you can follow the instructions visually. No less. Let me be different: to improve your English read articles in BLOGLOVIN’ which will help more than reading Oliver Twist , as far as your English goes. Join them at: https://www.bloglovin.com/