一時語塞該怎麼辦？

如果世界上有一個英文錯誤排行榜，"How to say?"這句話肯定列得上前十名。

在中文裡，當我們不知道怎麼表達，或是不知道該說什麼時，會不自覺地說：「怎麼說呢？」變成英文對話，"How to say?"就脫口而出。基本上，"How to say?"這句話的文法就不對。

當找不到合適的詞彙，老外會這樣說：

1、How do I put it? / What should I say?
這是最常用的兩句了。簡單明瞭，通俗易懂。

2、I don't know what to say.
過於激動、氣憤、惱怒、悲傷或者高興的時候，總會一時語塞、說不出話來。這時，你就可以說"I don't know what to say!"。

例句：You say you spent $100 on that car! I don't know what to say! I can't believe you did that! !（你說你花了100美元買車！我真是不知道該說什麼好了，真是難以置信！）

3、Something like it/ whatever you call it
有時真的找不到合適的表達法。就可以說：
A: What do you think of the idea of permanent education? That is, letting people go on learning until they die?
B: Well, that sounds quite new to me. Do you mean evening schools, or something like it?
實在不明白"permanent education"是什麼，就用...and something like it?來代替了。類似的說法還有whatever (you call it)。

4、A sort of ..., you know.
這個a sort of..., you know 最適合想了半天卻什麼也沒想出來的場合，讓對方從你說話的脈絡中去判斷你要表達的意思。

例句：This man is so popular here. He is just a sort of ..., you know.（這個人在這裡真受歡迎。他真是……，你知道的。）

5、You know what I mean.
前面說了太多，不容易總結，便可以用You know what I mean.。

例句：To be honest, this will be difficult. You know your application form will be read not just by me but by at least three members of the academic council, and it's no easy matter to have all of us agree on one thing... you know what I mean.（說實話，這很難。你知道不只一個人要看你的申請，學院委員會至少還有兩個人要看。要讓大家都同意可不是件容易的事……你知道我的意思。）

6、此外，你還可以用一些conversational fillers來爭取一些思考的時間。常用的有：well then，now，actually，of course，in fact，I mean，you know，you see，as a matter of fact，shall I say...，sort of，kind of，like，and等等。

這些詞彙就像是幫助你跨過溝通障礙的臨門一腳，不知道該怎麼說時，把這些小詞拿出來，人家就能懂你意思了。

作者簡介_世界公民文化中心