名人教英文 – 純粹好彩的F word

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09/11/2010

名人教英文 – 純粹好彩的F word 毛孟靜

上周談過A for antsy 等ABC 口語,今日續談D、E、F。

「Hmm…That’s a bit dodgy.」Dodgy 一字,有多款解釋,用廣東話表達,主要是「都唔知係唔係」、「信唔過」、「咪搞」的意思。如果說的是人,就是指對方形可疑,可能是個騙子,a fraud。若說的是物,像餐桌上的一條魚,是認為這條魚不新鮮,吃了或者會拉肚子。

若是情景的話,像晚上行街,就是擔心有「潛在危險」。

Dodgy 的同義詞,包括risky(危險的)、tricky(耍把戲、「玩」的)、evasive(迴避的)、總之就是of uncertain outcome(不知會發生什麼事)。

Dodgy 來自dodge,這個字在新聞報道常常出現:The official dodged many questions at the press conference,那個官員在記者會上迴避了許多問題。

要注意一點,是上述D for dodgy 的講法,都清一色地負面,但仍要視乎上文下理,或針對的物事,像說He has a dodgy American accent, 就不過說這個人的美式口音unclear、有點古怪,跟「危險」、「迴避」等等都無關了。

E for edgy,解緊張、急躁、不耐煩,代替字是tense。The performer was getting edgy backstage,表演者在後台覺得緊張不安。

Edgy 源自edge(邊緣),有兩大用法,一是好事一是壞事,容易亂腦。An edge over是好事,an edge to 是指負面情緒。

Hong Kong has an edge over Singapore.這句話是說香港相比新加坡有「優勝之處」。

There is an edge to his voice。這裏的edge,是形容聲音像「有條邊」、不自然,可以是憤怒、急躁以至傷心。

這一篇要說的F word,是fluky,跟lucky一樣解「幸運的、好彩」。但一般感覺,fluky 比lucky 的「僥倖」味道彷彿重了那麼一點點:

Getting that job was definitely fluky,找到那份工作是絕對僥倖。

Fluky 源自fluke,原本是指魚叉頭、箭及矛的嘴,引伸至有「亂拋都中」的意思,今日用作等於luck 的名詞。

That was pure luck! = That was pure fluke!純粹好彩!

網上聲檔:english.mingpao.com/mp3_12.htm

Glossary

dodgy 都唔知係唔係、信唔過

edgy 緊張、不安

fluky 僥倖的

 

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