"I heard 'cheers' hundreds of times when I lived in London. It was strange to me at first but I got used to it and when I used it myself I felt I gave a 'less foreign' impression." Cheers真有那么神奇的魔力，能讓外鄉(xiāng)人覺(jué)得自己像個(gè)地道的英國(guó)人?

Cheers最為大家熟知的含義是“干杯”，它表達(dá)了人們喝酒碰杯時(shí)對(duì)彼此的祝福。而今天，我們要講的是cheers在英式英語(yǔ)里面的一個(gè)獨(dú)特含義，這個(gè)用法在英國(guó)相當(dāng)普及，you could hear "cheers" all over the place, whether on the street, in pubs or at university among students...這時(shí)候，"cheers" is equivalent to "thank you" in response to a favour or assistance given。

原來(lái)"cheers"還有“謝謝”的意思。So any time you want to say thank you, you can just replace that with the word cheers in British English. 我們可以在大多數(shù)情況下把cheers這個(gè)詞當(dāng)作thank you來(lái)使用，不過(guò)"cheers" meaning "thanks" is slang or colloquial，用cheers會(huì)不會(huì)顯得不正式呢?

In the UK formal situations are often quite informal anyway. It is quite informal but we can still use it formal situation--so with your boss, when talking to someone you don't know so well.

在英國(guó)，即使是在一個(gè)正式的場(chǎng)合，大家也都比較隨便，所以不論你是在和老板或是一個(gè)陌生人說(shuō)話(huà)的時(shí)候，都可以使用cheers這個(gè)詞。

那么，cheers的這個(gè)含義是怎么產(chǎn)生的呢?Well, it has evolved over the years from when people used to say many years ago 'be of good cheer' or 'good cheer to you'. This would have been a greeting to wish someone well that has been shortened to cheers over time. 很多年前在英國(guó)，人們見(jiàn)面打招呼的時(shí)候會(huì)說(shuō)good cheer to you或者be of good cheer。隨著時(shí)間的推移，起先的問(wèn)候語(yǔ)英經(jīng)過(guò)多年的演變直到今天人們用cheers來(lái)表示謝謝thank you。

既然"cheers"可以就是“謝謝”的意思，那么只要有thank的地方，就可以用cheers替換嗎?當(dāng)然不是!It's always (almost) only used as a one word sentence, as in:

-- 'here's your spanner'

--'cheers' OR 'cheers for that'

但是，你就不能這么說(shuō)：

-- 'cheers for getting my spanner' (你只可以說(shuō)"thanks for getting my spanner")

再提供兩個(gè)cheers的用法實(shí)例：

對(duì)話(huà)實(shí)例1：

A: Did you get my email about the meeting?

B: Yes and I've replied and made sure that everyone knows about it.

A: Cheers.

對(duì)話(huà)實(shí)例2：

A: Two teas please.

B: Here you are.

A: Cheers.

"Cheers" is also commonly used in New Zealand for "thank you". 不過(guò)美式英語(yǔ)中"cheers"沒(méi)有“謝謝”的含義。If you say cheers for thanks, you'll probably get a funny look from most uncultured Americans. 但是，隨著近些年英國(guó)電影的影響和許多臺(tái)詞的編排(比如Harrison Ford和Brad Pitt主演的《與魔鬼同行》(The Devil's Own)中，扮演愛(ài)爾蘭人的Pitt就說(shuō)了好幾次的cheers)，美國(guó)人也知道了cheers的這個(gè)特殊的英式英語(yǔ)含義。所以如果你在美國(guó)用 cheers表示感謝，人們也不會(huì)覺(jué)得太奇怪。

最后，除了"cheers"，不要忘了"cheers, bro"和"cheers mate"，它們?cè)谟?guó)都比"thank you"和"thanks"的出現(xiàn)頻率高哦。注意，"cheers, bro" can be said to a friend (and not just your brother)。