「玩手機」的英文怎麼說? 【中式英文特輯】150 個你會講錯的英文日常用語–學校篇 (2)

小 V 今天要來大家看看幾個校園生活中
常見的英文錯誤啦~
「玩手機」的英文是 play cellphone?
就算已經離開校園也來看看
你有沒有犯過這些小錯誤吧!

王老師早安
Good morning, Teacher Wang!
Good morning, Miss/Ms./Mr./Mrs. Wang!

因為文化差異,在歐美國家如果跟中文一樣直稱老師「Teacher ___」,其實會被認為是不尊重的說法喔!

從國小、國中到高中老師,都應該用 Miss/Ms. /Mr./Mrs. 來尊稱他們,若是大學教授記得一定要用尊稱 Professor,注意後面都要接姓氏。

Francine: Good Morning Miss Wang! 
Francine: 王小姐早安!
Mrs. Wang: Good morning Francine, but it’s actually Mrs. Wang now. I got married during the summer vacation.
Mrs. Wang: Francine 早安,但我現在其實是王太太了。今年暑假我結婚了。
Francine: Congratulations! You’re not related to your husband, are you?
Francine: 恭喜!你跟你先生應該沒有血緣關係,對吧?
Mrs. Wang: No, no, no! Wang is just a very common surname.
Mrs. Wang: 沒有沒有!王只是一個很常見的姓氏。
Francine: Not that there’s anything wrong with marrying a relative. My sister married our cousin.
Francine: 也不是說和親戚結婚有什麼錯啦,我妹妹就嫁給我的一個親戚。
Mrs. Wang: Right … wow, look at the time! Better get on with the class.
Mrs. Wang: 是的… 哇,看看幾點了!得趕快去上課了。

老師會不會無意間產生種族歧視呢? (Are Teachers Unintentionally Racist?)

回家
go/come to home
go/come home

表示「去或來 (什麼地方)」英文要用動詞 go/come 加上介系詞 to 再接目的地,但英文中有些字本身除了可以當名詞,也可以作為地方副詞使用,因此在搭配 go/come 時不用加上任何介系詞 to,例如 home 就是其中一個例子。home 這個字可以當作地方副詞,因此直接說 go/come home 即可表示「回家」。

Rick: Oh no … a message from my wife. She says I’ve got to come home right now.
Rick: 喔不… 我老婆傳訊息來。她說我現在得回家。
Allen: Come on, it’s too early to go home! You’ve become really boring since you got married.
Allen: 少來了,現在回家太早了!你結婚之後就變好無聊。
Rick: I did say I was only going out for one drink. And I’m supposed to play the flute for her sister’s wedding …
Rick: 我有說我只是出來喝一杯,然後我得幫她妹妹的婚禮表演吹長笛。
Allen: Your wife is a teacher right? They can be so uptight!
Allen: 你老婆是老師對嗎?老師都很正經!
Rick: To be fair, I did say I was going out for one drink … three days ago.
Rick: 老實說,我有說我只是出來喝一杯… 大概三天前說的吧。
Allen: No wonder it’s so bright outside …
Allen: 難怪外面這麼亮…

補充 here 和 there 也是常見的地方副詞。當這類副詞與來去動詞 (come/go) 一起使用時,一樣不須加上介系詞 to。因此 come here 表示「過來」,go there 表示「過去」,都不需要再加介系詞。

吹長笛
blow the flute
play the flute

在英文中,「彈奏」樂器要用 play 這個字,不像在中文裡有「彈」鋼琴 (play the piano)、「吹」喇叭 (play the trumpet)、「打」鼓 (play the drum) 等不同動詞搭配。

Maria: Where the hell is Rick?
Maria: Rick 人到底在哪?
Mrs. Wang: I don’t know! He said he was going for one drink with Allen–but that was three days ago!
Mrs. Wang: 我不知道!他說他要去和 Allen 喝酒,但是是三天前說的!
Maria: That Allen is a bad influence. I told you to cut him out of your lives.
Maria: 那個 Allen 真是帶壞人。我就跟你說不要跟他來往了。
Mrs. Wang: I know, I know.
Mrs. Wang: 我知道我知道。
Maria: Who is going to play the flute to walk me down the aisle?
Maria: 誰要在我走紅毯的時候吹長笛?
Mrs. Wang: What is the piece he was supposed to play? I can’t play the flute … but I can play the banjo.
Mrs. Wang: 他要吹的曲子是什麼?我不會吹長笛… 但我可以彈斑鳩琴。

差別在哪?
What’s different?
What’s the difference?

要詢問兩樣人事物之間的差異,要怎麼說呢?有些人會說成 What’s different?,但這句話是表示「改變前後」的差異,也就是詢問「哪裡不一樣了?」。如果要說 A 和 B 的「差別」在哪,則要用 What’s the difference? 表示。

Mrs. Wang: And not only did I have to lie to everyone about why you weren’t there, but Maria had to have a banjo instead of the flute for her walk down the aisle!
Mrs. Wang: 我不只要騙大家說你為什麼不在場,Maria 走紅毯時也得把長笛換成斑鳩琴!
Rick: What’s the difference? The music is the same! It’s just a different instrument.
Rick: 差別在哪?音樂一樣啊!只是不同樂器而已。
Mrs. Wang: What’s the difference?! What’s the difference?! Do you know how humiliating that was for me? Everyone hates the banjo!
Mrs. Wang: 差別在哪!?差別在哪!?你知道那有多丟臉嗎?大家都不喜歡斑鳩琴!
Rick: Look, I’m sorry. I overslept.
Rick: 我很抱歉,我睡過頭了。
Mrs. Wang: For three days?! I don’t want you hanging out with that Allen any more!
Mrs. Wang: 睡過頭三天!?我不准你再和 Allen 出去了!

Have you noticed what’s different about Rick today?
你有發現 Rick 今天哪裡不一樣嗎?

睡過頭
sleep over
oversleep / sleep through one’s alarm

字首over- 有「超過」的意思,oversleep 就是指睡到超過應該起床的時間,也就是「睡過頭」。或者我們也可以說 sleep through one’s alarm,字面上意思是「睡到超過鬧鐘響的時間」。

而 sleep over 這個片語其實是美國學生常掛在嘴邊的話,意思是到朋友家過夜!

Allen: How did she react?
Allen: 她反應如何?
Rick: Not well.
Rick: 不太好。
Allen: What excuse did you use?
Allen: 你用什麼藉口?
Rick: I said that I overslept.
Rick: 我說我睡過頭。
Allen: That’s a terrible excuse. You were three days late. It’s hard to believe that you would have slept through an alarm for that long.
Allen: 好爛的藉口。你根本晚了三天,根本不會有人相信你會睡過頭那麼久。
Rick: Listen Allen … I don’t think we can hang out anymore.
Rick: Allen 你聽我說… 我們可能沒辦法再一起出來了。

玩手機
play cellphone
play games on one’s cellphone

說到「玩」手機,很多人會下意識地用 play 這個動詞。play 可以用在樂器或球類運動上,例如上述的 play the flute (吹長笛) 或是 play basketball (打籃球)。

但我們通常不會把整支手機當成玩具把玩,玩手機時其實是在玩手機裡的遊戲或應用軟體,因此玩手機要說 play games on one’s cellphone。同理,當我們「玩電腦」時,就可以說 play games on the computer。

Mark: Have you seen Rick lately?
Mark: 你最近有看到 Rick 嗎?
Allen: No. I’m not allowed to. His wife says that I’m a bad influence.
Allen: 沒有,我不被允許見他。他老婆說我帶壞他。
Mark: Oh … because of the flute thing?
Mark: 喔… 因為長笛那件事?
Allen: I dunno … possibly. He’s never on social media now either.
Allen: 不知道… 可能吧,他也都沒出現在社群媒體上了。
Mark: I know, right? The only time he ever posts is about playing games on his phone.
Mark: 我知道,只有一次他 po 他在玩手機遊戲。
Allen: Married life. What a tragedy.
Allen: 已婚生活,真慘啊。

到底該不該把鏡頭貼起來呢?( Should you cover your webcam? )

迫不及待想馬上開始練習嗎?

快打開 VoiceTube App 練英文!

立即下載 >>> https://bit.ly/myenglishissogood

英文單字不要硬背! 藉由 VoiceTube App 看影片,不會的單字反覆聆聽,加上單字測驗練習,聽寫齊下,立刻熟記!

文/ Angel Hsu
審/ Eunice Lin
圖/ Pexels, CC licensed
作者簡介/ VoiceTube 看影片學英語