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Interesting English Memo

Just a dumping ground for interesting English words, phrases or facts that I've come across.

Confusing words/phrases

Common words/phrases and its Mandarin equivalent

EnglishMandarin (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

Footnotes

  1. Referring to the Malaysian and Singaporean way of describing biscuits that are no longer fresh.

  2. An alternative phrase borrowed from French: coup de grâce.

  3. Actually just a direct translation of the English proverb.