【英文謬誤】- I woke up on the wrong side of the bed.

Feb 25, 2014

claire y. w.
3 min readJun 14, 2014

早上看到同事,多半都會打聲招呼,或是稍微聊幾句近況。有天Joey聽到外國同事一早來就說,I woke up on the wrong side of the bed. 其實他的意思是指:我心情不好。
只是當知道對方這麼說的時候,你又可以怎麼回應呢?

1. I got/woke up on the wrong side of the bed.
從錯的那邊下床,其實意思就是指我心情不好,但其實也可以直接說I’m in a bad mood. (我心情不好),相對的,如果你心情很好,你也可以說I woke up on the right side of the bed. 把wrong改成right就對拉!
E.g. I think my girlfriend got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. She’s been grumpy all day. (我覺得我女友今天心情不好,她整天都很暴躁。)

2. I think my head is on the chopping block.
chopping block指的是砧板,頭在砧板上,表示麻煩大了,可能連頭都不保了。也可以用put one’s head on the chopping block來替換。
E.g. We hit a major snag last week. I think my head is on the chopping block. (我們上週遇到一個很大的突發狀況。我覺得我完蛋了。)

3. I wish I was there.
當對方心情不好,對你傾訴了一些心事,你可以說我真希望我當時在場I wish I was there. 除了這句話,你還可以說I totally understand. 不僅是understand他的心情,還是totally,透徹地理解,這不是很讓人感到窩心嗎?

4. Don’t think of it that way.
別那樣想,常常自己都想太多,反而鑽入情緒漩渦,這裡記得think 後面的介系詞是of,在想誰也是用be thinking of…。
E.g. A: I’m obviously not cut out for this job. B: Don’t think of it that way!(A:我很顯然就是不適合做這份工作。B:不要那樣想!)

5. Hey, chill!
最後不妨拿杯咖啡跟對方說一句:Hey, chill! 嘿,放鬆點!
這樣不僅關心到朋友,也讓自己心裡有一些滿足感。除了這句之外,你還可以說:Hang in there! 撐住啊!Every cloud has a silver lining. 事情都會有轉機的。如果你是用手機text或是app訊息,也可以利用表情符號emoticons來表達你的關心,或是純粹就打一句:Hugs. (抱一個)就勝過千言萬語了!

How do you comfort a friend who is upset?? Leave us a comment below.

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claire y. w.

A pro-am educator, a grounded dreamer, a daughter and a magazine editor. This is Claire’s flipped English studio.