He is a chicken是「他是一隻雞」嗎?別鬧笑話了,老外要罵你了
將動物借用於指人的句子當中是英語口語的一大特點,比如我們前面說的a bird man,不是指魯智深說的「鳥人」,他其實指的是一個思想很自由的人,是完完全全的一個褒義詞,同樣,我們可以用chicken來形容一個人,大家都知道「小雞」有一個很重要的特點就是膽小,大家知道梁詠琪曾經發布一張唱片就是Chicken Chic(膽小鬼),所以 He is a chicken指的是He is cowardly,他是個膽小鬼的意思了,我們再看幾組用動物來修飾人的英文句子吧。
1. He is crazy like a fox. fox在西方指男人一般就是很狡猾,指代女人就是很性感、很嫵媚的意思,但在這個句子中的fox則是與crazy聯繫到了一起,他的意思就成了「他在裝瘋賣傻」了,例如:
In the past, many officials, fearing the emperor's punishment of their crimes, thought of a trick of "being crazy like a fox", so that the emperor could not take them.
過去很多官員由於害怕皇帝治他們的罪,就想了一招「裝瘋賣傻」,這樣皇帝就拿他們沒辦法了。
2. yellow dog 千萬別翻譯成「黃狗」了,其實在國外指的是忘恩負義的人,比如:
His boss said that he had worshipped his father's gift from a very young age and put this fellow in my shop as a pupil. He had never thought that he would grow up to be a self-supporting entrepreneur and rob my business. He was a yellow dog.
他的老闆說,從很小的時候就拜他父親所賜,把這個傢伙放到我的店裡當小學徒,不曾想他長大了自立門戶,搶我的生意,這是一個忘恩負義的人。
3. hen party這個短語字面的意思是「母雞聚會」,其實指代的是女人們舉辦的聚會,在此用hen指代女人,比如:
Men love smoking cigarettes, drink wine, which is like women, every week to hold a hen party. But women really don't like these girlie men who like to go to dances.
男人們都喜歡抽香菸、喝大酒,哪像女人們,每周都要舉辦一次聚會,不過女人們還真不喜歡這些喜歡參加舞會的娘娘腔男人們呢。
總的來說,在英語當中使用動物來擬人化的時候,小編發現都很形象,而且在我們看來就像猜謎語一樣,一旦答案揭曉,就覺得理應如此,但是如果讓我們自己來思考的話,未必會知道它的意思,不過我們還是給大家來三個簡單的,看看我們的領悟力如何,可以留言討論哦,比如:
Awolfinsheep'sclothing.
You stupid ass! How could you do a thing like that.
Lock the stable after the horse is stolen.