Grind someone's gears 令人惱火

內容簡介

有沒有某件事讓你每每遇到都會頗為惱火，甚至有些咬牙切齒？短語 “grind someone’s gears” 的意思就是 “讓某人不耐煩甚至大為惱火”，我們可以用它來描述 “某個總是令我們感到不愉快的事情”。聽節目，跟主持人菲菲和 Georgie 學習這個短語的用法以及與它含義相似的表達。

文字稿

（關於臺詞的備註: 請註意這不是廣播節目的逐字稿件。本文稿可能沒有體現錄制、編輯過程中對節目做出的改變。）

Feifei
Hello and welcome to Authentic Real English, where we explain phrases used by fluent English speakers so that you can use them, too! I’m Feifei, and I’m joined by Georgie. How are you doing?

Georgie
Well… I’m feeling calm now, but this morning, all the trains to work were cancelled so I had to get the bus instead! It really grinds my gears when that happens without warning or explanation.

Feifei
Oh, tell me about it! Well, ‘grind someone’s gears’ is the expression we’re looking at in this programme. Train cancellations without warning grind your gears, Georgie. So, what does that mean?

Georgie
Well, if something grinds your gears, it really annoys you. What grinds your gears Feifei?

Feifei

When people eat really crunchy things sitting next to me in the office, that really grinds my gears.

Georgie
Yeah, I can understand that one. Now, this phrase is usually used in the present simple to talk about things which generally annoy you. So you can start a sentence with ‘It grinds my gears when…’ or you could say ‘that really grinds my gears’.

Feifei
Yes, you wouldn’t usually hear it in other forms like ‘it ground my gears’ or ‘it was grinding my gears’ to talk about things that happen once. Use it for things which happen often. Let’s hear some more examples.

Examples
Every evening when I go home, there’s just so many tourists in the train station, it really grinds my gears. They get in the way with their suitcases, and I’m in a rush and I just want to get home.

OK, I’ll tell you what really grinds my gears. When people have got something for the dishwasher, and they don’t put it inside, they put it next to the dishwasher, so someone – me – has to come along and put it in for them.

So, I go to this coffee shop with my friend, and every time I go there, it’s like they’ve increased the price again. It really grinds my gears.

Feifei
你正在收聽的是 AYYBLOG 英語教學的 “地道英語” 節目。以上我們一起學習瞭短語 “grind someone’s gears” 的用法。如果我們說某件事情 “grinds our gears”，意思就是 “這件事情讓我們感到非常惱火，不愉快、不耐煩”。這個短語通常用來形容那些 “總是會讓我們感到生氣的事情”。

Georgie
Now, there are some other useful phrases to use when things annoy you. A ‘pet peeve’ is a noun and it’s something that annoys you. They’re usually quite personal, so for example, one of my pet peeves is people calling me without saying they’re going to call me.

Feifei
Whereas I don’t mind it when people do that. Another phrase we can use is ‘it drives me up the wall’. It drives me up the wall when Neil crunches his apples at the desk.

和 “grind someone’s gears” 類似，形容 “令人不高興、煩躁” 的表達還有 “pet peeves（不能忍受的事情）” 和 “drive someone up the wall（令人煩躁、惱火，甚至抓狂）”。

Georgie
OK. Let’s recap. We leant ‘grind someone’s gears’ which means annoy someone. Thanks for joining us! Bye.