English Is Not Easy

Book excerpt: A cheeky, sophisticated, and strikingly illustrated guide that leaves generic English reference books in the dust When prominent Barcelona-based illustrator Luci Gutiérrez found herself tuning out in English class, she used her love of drawing to help retain what she’d learned. Ditching the kind of bland and useless phrases that fill most English textbooks, Gutiérrez uses whimsical characters, cheeky dialogue, and even insults to bring vocabulary, grammar, and usage topics to life. Nearly forty-seven million people in the United States speak a language other than English at home, and even most native speakers struggle with subtle distinctions, such as when to use “whether” as opposed to “if.” (For example: I wonder whether I should have added a little more poison to his tea.) Already published to wide acclaim abroad, English Is Not Easy is sure to delight grammar mavens and students of English in America.