LAS LENGUAS INGLESA Y ESPAÑOLA de Delfín Carbonell

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...

  Discretion is the better part of valor Lo cortés no quita lo valiente Be discrete because discretion, as Shakespeare said, is the better part of valor Seamos corteses porque, como dijo Sakespeare, lo cortés no quita lo valiente — “Rather than risk trying to give the enormous slab of muscle a spanking, canny team bosses decide that discretion is the better part of valour and hire a child...” Empire Online, 10 June, 2004. UK.

  Do wrong once and you´ll never hear the end of it Por una mosca que mató, matamoscas le llamaron Robert has made just one mistake and as he has done wrong once he´ll never hear the end of it Roberto ha cometido un solo error, y ahora por una mosca que mató, matamoscas le llamaron — “Do wrong once and you´ll hear of it a thousand times.” Curtis Hutson, Punch Lines , 2000. US.