VOA流行美語 Unit 98: what's her face

VOA流行美語 Unit 98: what's her face

Li Hua正在往圖書館走，突然，Larry把她叫住了。 Li Hua在今天的談話中會學到兩個常用語：what's her face和thingamajig。

LL: Hey, Li Hua. One of your classmates asked me to give you this envelope.

LH: 我的同學要你給我這個信封？哪個同學呀？

LL: Oh, it was... what's-her-face, you know, the tall girl with red hair.

LH: 高個子、紅頭髮的女孩兒？你還說什麼- What's her face? 哎，Face不是“臉”嗎？

LL: I said "what's-her-face" instead of her name because I couldn't remember her name. I guess it means I can remember her face, but not her name.

LH: 噢，你不記得她的名字，但是你記得她的臉長的是什麼樣子，所以你說what's her face, 也就相當於what's her name 。Hm，Larry, 你這麼說是不是不太禮貌呢？

LL: Well, it's not really rude, but it's very informal. You shouldn't call someone what's-her-face if she is nearby... in that case, you should just ask her what her name is.

LH: 哎喲，幸虧你告訴我， 儘管what's-her-face是很隨便的說法，但是也不應該當着那個人的面這麼說。要是這個人就在你身邊，那麼我就應該直接問她叫什麼名字。哎，對了，Larry, 剛纔你是說what's her face, 要是男孩子的話，那應該怎麼說呢？

LL: You would say what's-his-face.

LH: 噢，要是男生，但是又記不起他的名字，那也可以說what's his face。我想起來了，那個高個紅頭髮的女孩是Julia。我和Jenny向她借了上星期四的筆記，因爲那天我倆沒去上課。這個信封裏肯定是她的筆記。

LL: That's right - You missed a class last Thursday. Hey wait, if you needed notes, why didn't you just ask me?

LH: 但是我們覺得 - what's-her-face... um, Julia... 她肯定比你記得好。

LL: Well, come to think of it - If I were what's-her-face, er... I mean Jenny, I wouldn't want my notes either.

******

LH: 哎，Larry, 你手裏拿的是什麼東西呀？

LL: This thing in my hand? Oh, it's the thingamajig I use to measure the air pressure in my car's tires.

LH: 什麼？Thin-ga-ma-jig - 這名字聽起來很好玩兒。

LL: No no, that's not the real name of this thing. We use "thingamajig", to replace the name of an object when we don't know or can't remember its real name.

LH: 噢，Thingamajig不是這個東西的名字。那要是不知道，或是忘了一樣東西的名稱，我們就可以用這個thingamajig來代替。哎，那不就是像我們中文裏說的“那玩意兒”嗎？是不是？

LL: That's right. Actually, I think the thing in my hand is called a "tire pressure gauge". Tom asked me to help him check the air pressure of his car's tires.

LH: 原來你手裏拿的這個thingamajig是用來測量汽車輪胎壓力的。你要幫Tom來測測他的車子輪胎啊 ？哎喲，Larry, 看來你對車子還挺懂的嘛！

LL: Hey, I never said I'm good with cars. To me, everything under the hood of my car is just a bunch of thingamajigs.

LH: 汽車引擎蓋下面的東西你是一竅不通啊？我纔不信。噢，說到修車，我這輛自行車的手閘最近不太靈，你幫我看看好不好？

LL: Let me see. I think you just need to oil these thingamajigs on your handlebars here.

LH: 自行車把手上的這些零件該上油啊？你肯定嗎？

LL: Well, if you don't believe me, you can ask what's-his-face, Jenny's boyfriend, the tall Indian guy - He can fix bikes.

LH: 那個高個子的印度人，Jenny的男朋友？你是說Rick吧！他會修自行車？那我可要去問問Jenny了！

LL：OK! Let's go!

今天李華從Larry那兒學到兩個常用語。一個是what's her face, 也可以說what's his face。意思是“那個叫什麼什麼的人”。李華學到的另一個常用語是thingamajig, 就相當於中文裏所說的“那個玩意兒”。