LAS LENGUAS INGLESA Y ESPAÑOLA de Delfín Carbonell

  Se escribe como una palabra y el plural es goodbyes. To say goodbye , despedirse: Did you say goodbye to your uncle? ¿Te has despedido de tu tío? She said goodbye to her fans , se despidió de sus admiradores. Es la palabra más formal y educada para las despedidas. También decimos "Bye-bye" de manera informal.  Godspeed , sería el equivalente al castellano “con Dios”, “vaya Ud. Con Dios”, o “que Dios te acompañe.” 

  In my time it was necessary to own a good set of reference books to aid our researches. Not so now when we only have to possess a good computer and internet connection. Today I was perusing one such book in my library; Frank R. Palmer ´s Grammar, 1978 edition, Pelican Books. Professor Palmer (1922-2019) lived to be 97 probably because of his life-long interest in language.  I am in the habit of underlying or highlighting passages I find of interest, the quiddity of my reading. Let me share what I underlined years ago, please. --"Few areas of our experience are closer to us or more continuously with us than our language. We spend a large part of our waking life speaking, listening, reading, and writing. The central part of a language... is its grammar, and this should be of vital interest to any intelligent educated person." --"We have very little idea of the steps by which men came to speak and, indeed, no accurate assessment of the time at which speech began." -...

  Hablando con propiedad, la palabra gay significa, happy, glad, merry, cheerful , jolly , así que podemos hablar de gay colors, gay curtains . Y, como en castellano, antaño las prostitutas llevaban una vida alegre, a gay life , que, por supuesto, de alegre nada. Pero ahora la palabra se asocia con la homosexualidad y se ha convertido en estándar, tanto en lengua inglesa como castellana. Tenemos literatura gay, gay literature , matrimonios gay, gay marriages , pubs gay, gay pubs … y decimos que el vecinito del cuarto D es gay. Muy normal, especialmente porque la palabra no suena ofensiva, como maricón, fag , faggot . Es casi inocua y puede emplearse siempre sin problemas. No debemos confundir gay con guy. Podemos decir: That guy is gay , ese tipo es gay.

  GERUNDIO El gerundio (hablando, comiendo, viviendo) se forma con –ing añadido al verbo: speaking, eating, living . Después de preposición debemos emplear el gerundio: “ After going, before speaking, on coming, for eating ” . En castellano empleamos el infinitivo: “ después de ir, antes de hablar, al venir, para comer. ” (Nunca diremos “for to”)

  FULL Full , lleno. “ Full of people” , lleno de gente. “ The theater was full” , el teatro estaba lleno. “ Full in the face” , en plena cara: “ The stone hit him full in the face ,” la piedra le dio en plena cara. “ To pay in full ” , pagar la cantidad completa, todo. “ In full activity, in full bloom, in full battle equipment.” -FUL Sufijo que se emplea con nombres, sustantivos, para indicar plenitud, lleno: “ handful ” , puñado; “ spoonful ” , cucharada; “ plateful of soup ” , un plato lleno de sopa. También significa caracterizado por, lleno de, como en “ beautiful , wonderful , careful , harmful , mouthful, thoughtful ” , pensativo. Nótese que este sufijo se escribe con una “l” y no con dos. Los plurales son spoonfuls , platefuls, cupfuls …

O humor negro, que también se le conoce como gallows humor : humor patibulario, de gallows , patíbulo, horca. También dark humor . Un pequeño ejemplo tomado de Jack Handy, de su libro Deep Thoughts : “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade, pee in it, and serve it to the people that piss you off.” ( Lemon : defectuoso, malo. To pee , hacer pipí. To piss off , jorobar, encabronar.) En el Chicago Sun Times, 23 de marzo, 2010, el Presidente Obama dijo en una entrevista: “There’s got to be a little gallows humor to get you through the day.”             O h

  Last night I had another crazy dream, where everything is possible. I was in Pittsburgh (many of my dreams take place there), and I was swimming happily in a public swimming pool in North Park. But then, zoom, I was in Argentina. Why? Goodness knows, this is the stuff dreams are made of, as the poet said. But I wanted to continue with my refreshing activity. I explained where I wanted to go to an old lady: "Ah, querés ir a una pileta ."  Before I was able to answer I was flown to Mexico where I still wanted to swim. So I said "pileta, pileta" to no avail. A young girl came to my rescue and told me I wanted to go to an alberca . "Piletas are albercas here." I could not even thank her because suddenly, in my dream, I was in Seville. As I am pigheaded even in my dreams, I went around saying "pileta, alberca" until a cop said: "¿Pileta? ¿alberca?" You want to go to a piscina . But then I woke up in a sweat, confused and flabbergasted.