“What the heck”是美国人特别常用的感叹句,属于必须掌握的基本口语.

先来看看heck.这个词没有实际的意思,基本上是起加强证据的作用.比如:

Professor Brown tends to speak very fast. Not surprisingly, foreign students usually find it hard to follow him. Heck, even those American students struggle to keep up with him.（Brown教授说话很快,外国学生通常很难听懂他的话,这没什么好奇怪的.就连美国学生要跟上他的节奏都很费力.

    对应heck的这种用法,what the heck就是what的意思,只不过语气比较强一些. 比如:

What the hoek are you taliking about/(你到底在说什么啊?)

Heck除了加强语气表示强调之外,还是hell的委婉语,所以what the heckwhat the hell同义,且相对比较文明一些,这种用法单独成句,基本上可以翻译成”搞什么嘛”, 主要用来表达迷惑、诧异或懊恼等情绪.比如:

That speech was pure gibberish. I was like “What the heck?” from start to finish.(那个演讲根本就是天书.我从头到尾都处在”这哪儿跟哪儿啊?)

    That have a final tomorrow and you decide to throw a party tonight? What the heck?(明天有一门期末考试,今晚你居然还准备开派对?搞什么嘛?)

They knew you couldn’t swim and still pusjed you into the pool? What the heck?(他们知道你不会游泳还把你扒下水?有没有搞错!)

What the heck偶尔还可以表示”管它呢”的意思,类似于加一个很常用的语whatever.比如:

After careful consideration, she finally said,” What the heck! I’ll give it a try!” (经过仔细考虑之后,她终于开口了:”管它呢!我要试一试!”)

还有一个和what the heck/hell意思相同的说法是what the fuck.很显然,这是脏话,在特别气愤的时候使用. What the fuck在书面表达时经常被缩写为WTF,这样一来既可以保持生气的态度,又巧妙地避开了直接的脏话,是很多美国人的惯用伎俩.比如, 抨击布什总统的人往往会列举出一串他的口误,然后来一句尖刻的评语:WTF?”

注释小布什以口误频繁闻名.他曾经说过:”Tdrrosists never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.”(“恐怖分子从不停止考虑如何用新方法来伤害我们的国家和人民,我们也是.”)

此言一出,美国人民齐声质问:”WTF?”