Whatever獲評最令人反感詞彙

Whatever you think about using grating words, at the end of the day it's actually better not to say whatever, if you know what I mean.

For the second consecutive year "whatever' topped a Marist poll as the most annoying word or phrase in the English language.

Nearly 39 percent of 1,020 Americans questioned in the survey deemed it the most irritating word, followed by "like" with 28 percent and the phrase "you know what I mean' at 15 percent.

"Perhaps these words are introduced through popular culture, for example movies ... so they catch on," said Mary Azzoli, of Marist. "It has a lot to do with how accepted and how popular they become in every day speech."

Azzoli said words like "whatever" can be quite dismissive depending on how they are used.

"It's the way they are delivered and inherent in that delivery is a meaning.

The phrase "to tell you the truth" and "actually" were also unnerving to many people. But for younger Americans, aged 18 to 29, "like" was the word that annoyed them most.

不管你對使用惱人的詞語怎麼看，到頭來最好還是不要說“whatever”（無所謂），你懂我的意思吧。

美國聖母學院近日評選出英文最令人反感的詞彙或短語，“whatever”再度蟬聯榜首。

近39%的受訪者認爲“whatever”是最令人反感的詞彙，“like”（比如）以28%的選票位居第二，短語“你懂的”排在第三，投票率爲15%。1020名美國人蔘與了此項調查。

美國聖母學院的瑪麗•阿左利說：“這些詞也許是從流行文化中來的，比如電影，所以變得時髦起來。這與在日常交談中，人們對這些詞的接受程度，以及它們本身的流行程度有很大關係。”

阿左利表示，“whatever”這樣的詞可以表達非常不屑一顧的語氣，取決於使用的語境。

“這種不屑的態度是說話方式表現出來的，說話方式本身暗含不屑。”

對很多人來說，“to tell you the truth”（老實說）和“actually”（其實）也令人生厭。但對18歲至29歲的美國年輕人來說，“like”（比如）最讓他們討厭。

Vocabulary:

at the end of the day: 到頭來，在結束的時候

catch on: to become popular（受歡迎；流行起來；變得時髦）