E聊吧第52期:惹人惱火的"whatever"

網羅天下、新鮮、好玩、有趣、時尚的英語表達，盡在獨家專欄節目"E聊吧"。

Whatever? Whatever!

Do you want to kill a conversation? Try saying "whatever".

想要結束一段對話？試試看說上一句“隨便”（Whatever）吧。

Words like "you know" and "like" might be irritating to hear, but for the third year in a row, it's "whatever" that holds the most power to annoy, according to an annual survey by the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion.

根據美國聖母學院公共輿論研究所的一項年度調查結果顯示，“隨便”（Whatever）一詞連續第三年榮登年度最讓美國人討厭的詞彙的榜首；此外，諸如“你懂的”（You Know）和“比如”（Like）一類的詞也很惹人煩。

Nearly four in 10 adults named "whatever" as the most annoying verbal filler in casual conversation, while one in five adults had similar disdain for "like" and "you know." "Just sayin' " and "seriously" were more forgiving to the ears, though still quite irritating, Marist found.

近40%的受訪者將“隨便”（Whatever）選作日常談話中最討人厭的敷衍之詞。另外有20%的民衆對“比如”（Like）和“你懂的”（You know）也有同樣地厭惡情緒。調查還顯示，儘管“隨便說說”（Just sayin）和“說真的”（Seriously）這兩種表達讓人聽了也很窩火，但至少還可接受。

The telephone survey of 1,026 adults nationally had a margin of error of three percentage points.

聖母學院在全美範圍內對1026位成人做了此項調查，其誤差幅度爲三個百分點。