Interesting English Memo
Just a dumping ground for interesting English words, phrases or facts that I've come across.
English is a messy language
- consist of vs. consist in
- in one's way vs. on one's way
- on time vs. in time
- over time vs. overtime
- some time vs. sometime vs. sometimes
- second thought vs. second-guess
- infancy vs. infantry
- adulthood vs. adultery vs. adulterant
- salvage vs. savage
- ingenuous vs. ingenious vs. indigenous
- any more vs. anymore
- severe vs. sever
- savour vs. saviour
- whiter vs. wither vs. whither
- physicist vs. physician
Common words/phrases and its Mandarin equivalent
| English | Mandarin (華文) |
|---|---|
| lurking | 潛水 |
| third wheel | 電燈泡 |
| stale | 漏風1 |
| ultimatum | 最後通牒 |
| virtuous cycle | 良性循環 |
| vicious cycle | 惡性循環 |
| the last straw2 | 壓死駱駝的最後一根稻草3 |
| icing on the cake | 畫龍點睛 |
| lazy Susan | 餐桌轉盤 |
| riding shotgun | 坐副駕駛座 |
| Tom, Dick and Harry | 張三李四 |
| comeuppance | 報應 |
| fun sponge | 掃興鬼 |
| epiphany | 茅塞頓開 |
| cross the floor | （政治）跳槽 |
| quandary | 兩難 |
| jump on the bandwagon | 跟風 |
| twenty-twenty hindsight / Monday-morning quarterback | 馬後炮 |
| jump the gun | 操之過急 |
| plain-spoken | 說話直白/直接 |
| je ne sais quoi (loanword from French) / subtlety | 微妙之處 |
| half-hearted | 敷衍 |
Footnotes
-
Referring to the Malaysian and Singaporean way of describing biscuits that are no longer fresh. ↩
-
An alternative phrase borrowed from French: coup de grâce. ↩
-
Actually just a direct translation of the English proverb. ↩