An Englishman’s home is his castle – answers and notes

The suffix -spoken describes the manner in which someone speaks – you can be soft(ly)-spoken, well-spoken, or quietly-spoken. If you are quietly-spoken you speak quietly. Wendy and Simon are a softly-spoken couple.

1 The annual competition to name the best B & Bs / B&Bs in England run by Enjoy England.
2 At Augill Castle, near Kirkby Stephen, in Cumbria.
3 That ‘everybody gets a little bit of the magic’ (of living in a castle) – she says they get to believe they live there (i.e. in a castle) for the time they’re there.

Magic – noun – the special and exciting quality that makes something seem different from ordinary things.
Get to do sth – have the chance (or opportunity) to do something eg ‘I got to visit Barcelona, which I’d never been to before.’
You probably have the equivalent of ‘castles in the air‘ (or in Spain) in your own language – meaning unattainable schemes; daydreams. Eg Brenda’s ideas about setting up a business in Portugal sound like castles in the air – i.e. they sound impractical.
The UK saying that ‘An Englishman’s home is his castle‘ is used to show that English people believe that they should be able to control what happens in their own homes, and that no one else should tell them what to do there

4 In a guest sitting-room.

We use this noun guest attributively in the singular – a whole family might sleep in someone’s guest room, or you may sign the guest book (or several guest books) at a bed and breakfast, hotel or museum, whereas you would sign the visitors’ book. A B&B is a guest house / guesthouse.
If someone say ‘Be my guest!’ it means ‘by all means, or of course’ and gives someone permission to do or use something: "Could I make myself a sandwich, please?" "Be my guest."

5 That they do not shut themselves away somewhere else – they genuinely share the whole house, the whole castle and the grounds, so people feel genuinely at home.
6 She describes it as a fairytale.
7 As being their fairytale as well as the owners’.

They feel as if it’s their fairy tale as well as that of the owners.
If a sentence introduces a clause with a verb we use the conjunctions as if or as though. Wendy says they feel like, which English people often say, but isn’t correct. It feels like rain (noun). It looks like hard work (noun). It looks as if we’ll arrive later than we thought. It feels as though it’s going to rain (verb).

8 That it is that that makes them different.

The structure ‘That / this is what / why / when / who’ is a form of emphasis. Eg This is what / who she’s working for.
Wendy says "That’s what makes the difference." What here is a relative pronoun meaning ‘the thing(s) that’ or ‘the thing(s) which’.
Notice the difference in ‘It is that that makes the difference’ – after ‘it is / was this / that’ you could say which, but not what.

9 They enjoy coming and staying in bed late, wandering through the gardens, playing with the dog, or sitting in front of the fire reading.
10 The essence of it is …. = The most significant / important feature of our success / of a stay here…..

We use the word essence meaning a very important or significant feature, as well as the true nature of something. You know the adjective essential, but did you know the noun essence?
If something is of the essence it is FORMAL for the most crucial / important thing: eg Could we remind you that confidentiality is of the essence? In solving the company’s problems with restructuring finances are of the essence.

11 Between treating people as guests and treating them as customers.
12 Because that is where the real essence of true hospitality lies.

(Simon says lie – he’s lost sight of his singular noun! Easily done!)

Perhaps you have time for some grammar or reading or some time to look at other options on the Home Page?