BURGLARS, MUGGERS AND OTHER UNPLEASANT PEOPLE

How do you call unpleasant people that threaten your peace on the streets or even home?
Well, it depends on what they do because even in the low districts there is a hierarchy!

Burglar.- n. Someone who breaks into a place (house, flat, office, etc.) to take things illegally.

Mugger.- n. Someone who stops you in the middle of the street to take your things away.

Robber .- n. Someone who steals by force.

Thief .- n. Someone who steals.

Ok, so you say, "Well, the last three are very similar." Yes, they are, but check the minor details, they are there for a reason. Read again. A mugger appears out of nowhere and takes your things, maybe he scares you but he doesn't harm you. A robber is violent, he uses force, he may be armed or he may hit you. Finally a thief can be a poor person that takes an apple from a stand out of pure hunger without harmful intentions. Anyway if he steals your wallet, he's still unpleasant!

CONFUSING WORDS: A MATTER OF FEELINGS

Often, for Spanish natives, it is easy to confuse emotion and excitement because of the false cognate of emoción and emotion. Ok, here's the tip:

emotion n. 1. strong feeling such as love, anger, or fear 2.emotional inteligence or sensibility [MFr, rel. to MOTION]
eg. The intense emotion invaded her and she started crying.

excitement n. 1. excited state of mind 2. eciting thing (exciting.- arousing great interest or enthusiasm)
eg. The excitement over the football match was great, people were roaring and a vibrant atmosphere could be sensed in the stadium.

WORD FORMATION -less, -ful

Adjectives can be formed adding -less or -ful to nouns. eg. shameful, shameless
In this case -less rests the quality while -ful adds it, therefore shameless means with no shame and shameful means full of shame.
Try to deduct the meaning of the following adjectives:

fruitless
fruitful
harmful
harmless
spoonful