“What the heck”是美國人特別常用的感嘆句,屬于必須掌握的基本口語.

先來看看heck.這個詞沒有實際的意思,基本上是起加強證據的作用.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教授說話很快,外國學生通常很難聽懂他的話,這沒什么好奇怪的.就連美國學生要跟上他的節奏都很費力.

    對應heck的這種用法,what the heck就是what的意思,只不過語氣比較強一些. 比如:

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

Heck除了加強語氣表示強調之外,還是hell的委婉語,所以what the heckwhat the hell同義,且相對比較文明一些,這種用法單獨成句,基本上可以翻譯成”搞什么嘛”, 主要用來表達迷惑、詫異或懊惱等情緒.比如:

That speech was pure gibberish. I was like “What the heck?” from start to finish.(那個演講根本就是天書.我從頭到尾都處在”這哪兒跟哪兒啊?)

    That have a final tomorrow and you decide to throw a party tonight? What the heck?(明天有一門期末考試,今晚你居然還準備開派對?搞什么嘛?)

They knew you couldn’t swim and still pusjed you into the pool? What the heck?(他們知道你不會游泳還把你扒下水?有沒有搞錯!)

What the heck偶爾還可以表示”管它呢”的意思,類似于加一個很常用的語whatever.比如:

After careful consideration, she finally said,” What the heck! I’ll give it a try!” (經過仔細考慮之后,她終于開口了:”管它呢!我要試一試!”)

還有一個和what the heck/hell意思相同的說法是what the fuck.很顯然,這是臟話,在特別氣憤的時候使用. What the fuck在書面表達時經常被縮寫為WTF,這樣一來既可以保持生氣的態度,又巧妙地避開了直接的臟話,是很多美國人的慣用伎倆.比如, 抨擊布什總統的人往往會列舉出一串他的口誤,然后來一句尖刻的評語:WTF?”

注釋小布什以口誤頻繁聞名.他曾經說過:”Tdrrosists never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.”(“恐怖分子從不停止考慮如何用新方法來傷害我們的國家和人民,我們也是.”)

此言一出,美國人民齊聲質問:”WTF?”