He is a chicken是“他是一只鸡”吗?别闹笑话了,老外要骂你了
将动物借用于指人的句子当中是英语口语的一大特点,比如我们前面说的a bird man,不是指鲁智深说的“鸟人”,他其实指的是一个思想很自由的人,是完完全全的一个褒义词,同样,我们可以用chicken来形容一个人,大家都知道“小鸡”有一个很重要的特点就是胆小,大家知道梁咏琪曾经发布一张唱片就是Chicken Chic(胆小鬼),所以 He is a chicken指的是He is cowardly,他是个胆小鬼的意思了,我们再看几组用动物来修饰人的英文句子吧。
1. He is crazy like a fox. fox在西方指男人一般就是很狡猾,指代女人就是很性感、很妩媚的意思,但在这个句子中的fox则是与crazy联系到了一起,他的意思就成了“他在装疯卖傻”了,例如:
In the past, many officials, fearing the emperors gift from a very young age and put this fellow in my shop as a pupil. He had never thought that he would grow up to be a self-supporting entrepreneur and rob my business. He was a yellow dog.
他的老板说,从很小的时候就拜他父亲所赐,把这个家伙放到我的店里当小学徒,不曾想他长大了自立门户,抢我的生意,这是一个忘恩负义的人。
3. hen party这个短语字面的意思是“母鸡聚会”,其实指代的是女人们举办的聚会,在此用hen指代女人,比如:
Men love smoking cigarettes, drink wine, which is like women, every week to hold a hen party. But women really donsclothing.
You stupid ass! How could you do a thing like that.
Lock the stable after the horse is stolen