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Every dog has his day.--風水輪流轉
2010/04/11 11:31:00瀏覽11005｜回應1｜推薦4

這幾天台灣最紅的人莫過於素人歌手林育群（小胖）。被台灣媒體封為「蘇珊大嬸接班人」、「男版Whitney Houston」的小胖其貌不揚卻歌聲驚人，連眾多國外媒體也爭相邀訪他，讓人不得不對其刮目相看！這讓我想到英文諺語中很常見的一句話：Every dog has his day.。

這句諺語直譯是「每隻狗都有好運的一天」，has one’s day 就是「某人得意的一天」，因此這句話是說「每個人都有成功的機會」。此話通常用在鼓勵人「別灰心，儘管現在不得志，將來總有輪到你成功的一天」，例如：Don’t despair. Be patient. Remember every dog has his day!（別絕望。要有耐心，別忘了風水輪流轉）。這句話也可用在形容某人雖然不是那麼好，卻在因緣際會下有了好運，例如一個其貌不揚、各方面都平庸的男生，最後終於抱得美人歸，這時你便可以說：Well, every dog has his day!。

要注意的是，這句諺語中雖然用到 dog 這個字，但沒有貶意，非「小人得志」之意，因此可以用在鼓勵身邊的人，要大家儘管一時喪志，還是要努力奮鬥，因為總有一天機會及好運會降到自己頭上。

A: I heard that Jack has been making a fortune recently, and that he just purchased a new car and moved into the Palace.

B: No kidding? Didn’t he used to borrow money from you?

A: Yep. I remember back when he used to sell umbrellas during that big drought and hot pots during that warm winter we had a couple of years back.

B: Yeah. I remember that he used to lose money in all of his ventures.

A: I never thought I’d see the day when he would be raking in the dough!

B: Yeah, I guess every dog has his day.

A: 聽說阿傑最近發了耶，剛剛買新車、搬進去「帝寶」說。

B: 真的喔？他以前不是還常向你借錢？

A: 是啊，還記得幾年前，他賣雨傘時遇到大旱災，賣火鍋時又遇上大暖冬。

B: 對啊，我記得他那時投資什麼就垮什麼。

A: 沒想到他竟然也有發達的一天啊！

B: 嗯，真是風水輪流轉啊。

單字

1.      fortune (n.) 財富

2.      purchase (v.) 購買

3.      kid (v.) 開玩笑

4.      umbrella (n.) 雨傘

5.      drought (n.) 旱災

6.      hot pot 火鍋

7.      venture (n.) 冒險活動；投機事業

片語

1.      used to V 曾經…；以前會…

例He used to swim in this river when he was little but not anymore.（他小時候常常會在這河裡游泳，不過不再這麼做了。）

2.      rake in the dough（口語）賺大錢

例She rakes in the dough by selling Japanese-style hamburgers.（她靠賣日式漢堡賺大錢。）

**此為黃玟君老師之創作，若要引用或轉載，請註明作者及出處，謝謝！**

 

 
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bigbow
好像有問題
2010/04/25 00:00

Didn’t he used to borrow money from you?

老師，這句是不是用Didn’t he use to borrow money from you?

比較適當?
黃玟君(profhuang) 於 2010-05-07 16:47 回覆：

Hi Bigbow,

謝謝你的詢問！事實上這兩個說法都可，Didn't he use to... 會比 Didn't he used to... 來得正式，但口語中native speakers 絕大多數用 Didn't he used to...

請參考以下網站的說明，used to 在「否定問句」中的用法在段落的最後，我已經用紅色highlight起來方便你參考：

http://www.talktalk.co.uk/reference/dictionaries/english/data/d0082988.html

used to

Used to expresses the idea of something we did in the past but no longer do: When I was a child, we used to go to Scarborough for our holidays.

Using used to in questions and negative sentences can present problems. The usual way of turning a sentence like He used to snore into a question is with the word did. This is straightforward in spoken English, but there are two possible ways of writing it. The more logical is: Did he use to snore? The alternative, Did he used to snore?, is becoming more accepted, but it still strikes many people as odd. You can also make a question by reversing the word order: Used he to snore? But this is becoming less common.

The usual way of making used to negative is with didn't. But again, there's a problem with how to write it. He didn't use to snore is more widely acceptable than He didn't used to snore. You can also put not after used, although this is becoming less common: He used not to snore. The contracted written form is usedn't, not usen't. You can avoid any difficulty by using never: He never used to snore.

For negative questions, you can say: Didn't he use (or used) to snore? or Usedn't he to snore? (the uncontracted form of this, Used he not to snore?, is rather pompous and old-fashioned).