The naked truth.

En el post de hoy nos proponemos desvelaros toda la verdad en inglés.


Se trata de un intensivo sobre la palabra "verdad" tal cual, dado que con solo buscarla en www.wordreference.com hemos accedido a toda una serie de expresiones muy útiles.


Recomiendo este ejercicio: Cuando no sepáis una palabra y la busquéis en wordreference, en mi opinión el diccionario Inglés-Español más completo en la red, no os quedéis en la palabra que buscabais y aprovechad para absorber todo lo que esa búsqueda os pueda ofrecer.


Esta sección se llamará Dive in! (sumergirse/ zambullirse/meterse de lleno en algo).




(Para la búsqueda de expresiones completas recomiendo:
- http://www.thefreedictionary.com
- http://www.linguee.es/
-http://www.urbandictionary.com/  )




Y una vez dicho esto, vayamos a lo que nos ha traido aquí. Let´s dive in the naked truth!

Verdad (sustantivo femenino).
 
- es la pura verdad: it's the gospel truth.


- a decir verdad..:to tell you the truth…


- me dijo la verdad a medias: she only told me half the truth.


- la verdad, no lo sé: I honestly don´t know.


- la verdad es que...: the truth is that…


- en honor a la verdad: in all fairness.


- ¡eso no es verdad!: that's (so) not true!


- si bien es verdad que...: it might well be true that…


- faltar a la verdad: to be untruthful.


- creer que se está en posesión de la verdad: to think one is always right.


- ¿de verdad?, ¿en serio?: REALLY?!


- (buscando corroboración) ¡es muy guapa ¿verdad?: she's very beautiful, isn't she?/ right?


- ¿verdad que tú me entiendes?: you understand me, don't you?/ right?


- eso es una gran verdad: that is so true!


- ser una verdad como un templo: to be self-evident.


- cantarle o decirle cuatro verdades a alguien: to tell sb a few home truths.


- él dice verdades como puños: he isn't afraid to tell the truth.

Happy endings...sufixes.

Hi everyone! 


After "All´s well, that starts well" I know you were all wondering: what about the sufixes? They deserve attention too! Here it is! 


Suffixes are included to the end of a word to change its meaning. Common ones include: -ing, -ible, -ize, -ise, -ist, -ly, -able, -ful, -ness, -ation,...


Let´s have a look at these basic rules about their spelling:


-Adding a sufixe may alter the spelling of the preceding word.


-If a word ends in a y that is preceded by a consonant, the y changes to i.
happy/ happiness.
beauty/ beautiful.


-But if the y is preceded by a vowel, the y remains.
enjoyment.


-And if the original word ends in an e, this is usually dropped.
lovable/sensible.


But not always!
Pronounceable, not pronuncable. (Because that way the pronunciation would be altered.)


Let´s see some of them. You will realise you already know plenty of them and as it happenned with prefixes, we will suddenly find ourselves with way more vocabulary that we thought we had.


- able: can or able to do something.
i.e: capable, unable, realiabale (digno de confianza), bearable (soportable).


- fuL: fuLL of.
i.e: beautiful (llena de belleza), useful, helpful, faithful (fiel, creyente).


- ment, -ness, -ion: to convert a verb into a noun (there is more, those are just some of them)
i.e: movement, engagement, establishment, caution, information.

- ness: to convert and adjective into a noun.

i.e: beautifulness, usefulness, madness.


- ly, -ively: adverb making.
i.e: lively, actively, suddenly, slowly.


- er, or: to name the person that does something, the doer.
i.e: worker, teacher, doctor, singer.

Music and passion.

Os dejo este vídeo sobre música clásica.
Diréis: "¿Música clásica?, ¡qué impopular!, ¿y que poco divertido!".

Este vídeo no es sobre música clásica es sobre la música en sí y la pasión que uno pone en hacer lo que le gusta. Y sobre la importancia de saber comunicar sobre un tema consiguiendo, no solo atraer la atención de le gente, sino emocionarla y hacerla partícipe.

En la vida hay que dedicarse a lo que uno le gusta, porque la dedicación y la pasión que se pone en ello, no es ni por asomo comparable a la rutina de dedicar nuestros días al "trabajo".
Esa pasión será la que te haga marcar la diferencia. Y puede que hasta te lleve al éxito (o no) pero te hará sin duda acostarte cada noche satisfecho, contento y con ganas del siguiente día.

Un saludo.



- Hopeless: sin esperanza.

- And rather than (en lugar de) going to stadistics and trends telling you that all the orchestras are closing and
record companies are folding (hablando de un negocio/tienda: quebrar, cerrar sus puertas).

- It´s not actually an experiment, because I already know the outcome (resultado).

- And at that point (y llegados a ese punto) they usually give up (lo dejan).

- Every other note: una nota sí, una no.

-...suDDenly the music took oFF (take oFF: despegar: literal y figurado).

- There was a gasp (suspiro) in the audience when they heard the diFFerence.

- I was so moved (emotionally aFFected, conmovido).

- ...you come home from a long day, you put your feet up, a little Vivaldi in the background doesn´t do any harm (un poco de Vivaldi de fondo no hace daño a nadie).

- If you were tone-deaf, you couldn´t tell the diFFerence between (percibir la diferencia entre) somebody from Texas and somebody from Rome.

(To be tone-deaf: no tener oído musical).

- I´m not going to go on until every single person in this room (...) will come to love and understand claSSical music No voy a continuar hasta que todas y cada una de las personas de esta sala terminen por/ lleguen a amar y entender la música clásica).

- There is not the slightest doubt in my mind that this is going to work. (No hay la más mínima duda en mi cabeza de que esto va a funcionar).

- I have a dream! Although I´m not sure I´ll be up to it (Aunque no estoy seguro de si lo conseguiré.

- And of course if the piece is long and you,ve had a long day, you may actually drift off.

(Drift off: caer rendido, quedarse dormido.
i.e: The kids drifted off as soon as we got them into the car).

- And then your companion will dig you in the ribs (entonces tu acompañante te dará un codazo en las costillas): Wake up! It´s culture!

- ...that´s in order to delay... (eso se hace con el objetivo de retrasarlo...)

- Deceptive: engañoso/a. Deceit: engaño.

- one last request before I play this piece all the way through (una última petición antes de que toque esta pieza entera, seguida).

- I had a realization: tuve una revelación.

- I have a definition of success: It´s about how many shiny eyes I have around me.



Let´s be like the bird who flies over the field and doesn´t care about the fences underneath.

Similar but not the same: Anymore, any longer, no longer.

¿Cual es la diferencia entre "anymore", "any longer" y "no longer"?


Las tres expresiones significan lo mismo ("ya no"). Usaremos una u otra en función del contexto, en concreto del signo de la frase en que esté inmersa (positivo o negativo).




Anymore.
i.e: I don't live here anymore. Ya no vivo aquí.


("Anymore" (junto) es inglés americano y "any more" separado es inglés británico).




Any longer: Significa lo mismo, "ya no", pero se utiliza cuando la frase que le antecede está en negativo.
i.e: She isn't (negativo) here any longer. Ella ya no está aquí.




No longer se utiliza cuando la frase que le antecede está en afirmativo.
i.e She is (afirmativo) no longer here. Ella no está aquí.


Esto es así porque en inglés no puede haber dos negativos juntos. Es decir, no es posible poner (-) + (-) porque al igual que ocurre en las matemáticas (-) + (-) = (+). 
Por tanto, siempre tiene que haber "(+) + (-)" o "(-) + (+)".

Ricky Gervais...

Buenos días de jueves. ¿Qué mejor que empezar el fin de semana con un poco de humor?
Aquí os dejo el historial de Ricky Gervais para los que no le conocéis.



"Ricky Gervais is an English comedian, actor, director, radio presenter, producer, musician, and writer.
Gervais achieved mainstream fame with his television series The Office and the subsequent series Extras, both of which he co-wrote and co-directed with friend and frequent collaborator Stephen Merchant. 
He has performed on four sell-out stand-up comedy tours, written the best-selling Flanimals book series and starred with Stephen Merchant and Karl Pilkington in the most downloaded podcast in the world as of March 2009, The Ricky Gervais Show.
He has won multiple awards and honours, including seven BAFTA Awards, five British Comedy Awards, two Emmy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards and the 2006 Rose d'Or, as well as a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination"



He has also hit the headlines (saltar a la palestra) recently for being the hostess (presentador, maestro de ceremonias) of the Golden Globes as his last performance was  full of criticism and wound, just as only English humour can be.
Gervais's job as host of the 68th Golden Globe Awards was met with criticism since he made biting jokes (bromas mordaces) about many of the stars in attendance.

¿Qué como sé todo esto? Gracias a wikipedia. http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/SOPA/Blackoutpage

Pensaba poner el vídeo de este año, pero visto en que se quedó en un quiero y no puedo, os dejo con el del año pasado que además tiene alguna expresiones interesantes.

Saludos!



- Let´s get this straight: acalremos esto.

- got drunk, got naked, trashed the place: destrozar el sitio/ la habitación.

- I tell you what...:Os diré una cosa.

- to jump on the bandwagon: Join a growing movement in support of someone or something, often in an opportunist way, when that movement is seen to have become successful.

- ...so they can hang out with Angelina Jolie and Jhonny Depp: pasar tiempo.

- to accept bribes: aceptar sobornos.

- All that happens: todo lo que pasó.

- pretending to be: fingiendo ser.

- my lawyers helped me with the wording of that joke. mis abogados me ayudaron con la redacción de esa broma.

- make out: entender, descifrar.

- neither of wich is he now: ya no es ninguna de estas dos cosas.

Nouns. The number game.

Hello everyone. Time to get serious, don´t you think?

As you know Nouns can be divided into countables and non-countables (or mass) nouns.


Countables nouns are:
- those used to name things that can be (reasonably enough) counted.
(one egg, two sausages,...)

- those that you can number: because you can easily count the specific number of items.

- therefore you can ask How many?




Mass or non-countable nouns are:
- those that can´t be reasonably counted and therefore has no plural.
(air, hair, milk, money, sand, stupidity and wisdom,...)

- quantities of non-countable nouns are described as an amount of hair, sand, rubbish,...
Either because they refer to an unsoecified amount of stuff or because there are too many individual bitsto number (sand, hair).

-therefore we don´t ask how many, but how much? And less (not fewer) to refer to a smaller amount or not as much


Fewer and less: a common mistake.

- Fewer: For countable nouns we use fewer (not less)

i.e: There were fewer days below freezing last winter.
(not less, as days can be counted)

- Less: For non-countable nouns we use less (not fewer), meaning a smaller amount or not as much.

i.e:  I drank less water than she did.



When referring to time or money, less is normally used even with numbers. Specific units of time or money use fewer only in cases where individual items are referred to.


i.e: I have less time to do this work,
but also...I have less than an hour to do this work.

I have less money than I need,
but also...I have less than twenty dollars.

The Italian man who went to Malta.

The importance of a good pronunciation...

As you know, there are some words in English that have a really similar pronunciation. This video explains why we should not rest on our laurels (dormirnos en los laureles) with our English learning and learn how to pronounce them correctly.


Those are the "guilty" words:

- pieces (piezas, trozos)/ piss (hacer pis)/ peace (paz).
- beach (playa)/ son of a bitch (hijo de mujer de moral realajada)
- fork (tenedor)/ fuck.
- sheet (hoja, sábana)/ shit (hacer caca).

The aNNoying orange.

As you all know oranges can be REALLY aNNoying... =)
I hope you all enjoy this video and have a nice "Three wise men" festivity.
We´ll be back on Monday with more!



- Why the long face?
(¿Y esa cara tan larga?)

- Do you know what else rhymes with hair? Nerd (pardillo),
And it looks like you are very familiar wih it baldy (calvito).

- I´m not an apple. I´m not even related!
(No soy una manzana, ¡no tengo nada que ver!)

- Look who´s the boss now!
(¡Mira quien manda ahora!)

- Pineapple? It looks more like a pain apple.
As the pineapple is being sliced, the orange does this word game between "pine" and "pain".
Also when somebody is aNNoying you say "he is a pain in the ass" or "he´s a pain". So he´s making that word game too, implying that more than a pineapple, he´s a pain (in the ass)-apple.

-Someone help me!
 (¡Qué alguien me ayude!)

- Hey apple, I don´t mean to stare (no pretendo quedarme mirando/ mirar fijamente) but you´re looking worst, for where?

(This is what the orange literally says but what it really wants is to make a word game between stare and stereo (escuchar en estereo). What he is actually saying is I don´t mean to listen on stereo and by the way, how do you hear now that you´ve been cut off and have no ears...)

-Leave me out of this!
(¡A mí dejame tranquila, no me metas.)

New Year´s Resolutions.

Have you made your New Year´s Resolution yet? Here you have some!

It may give you some ideas!

Happy 2012!




- Hold someone to account: tenerle algo a alguien en cuenta, hacerle resposabilizarse de sus actos, promesas, New Year´s resolutions,...

- Will: voluntad.

- Losing streak: mala racha/ Winning streak: buena racha.

- Driven: tenaz.