Tools and repairs in Portuguese

The sixth entry is a chave inglesa, and read word for word it is the English key — which is why it is worth a stop, because English has no such name for the thing. In Portuguese the adjustable spanner is inglesa; it is the English one in Spanish, in French and in Italian too, so four languages agree on a nationality that the language named never uses about itself. Ours is « an adjustable spanner », and in the English of the United States a « wrench ». The habit of handing an object to the neighbours is general, and we practise it as freely as anybody: « French windows », « a French plait », « Turkish delight », « a Swedish massage ». None of them can be trusted to say where the thing came from, so the adjective is best treated as part of the name. One further thing this entry teaches: a chave is the key of a door and every spanner in the box as well. A chave de fendas is the screwdriver and a chave de bocas the open-ended spanner. « Key » does none of that work.