一个词，让你像个地道的英国人

"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，能让外乡人觉得自己像个地道的英国人？

Cheers最为大家熟知的含义是“干杯”，它表达了人们喝酒碰杯时对彼此的祝福。而今天，我们要讲的是cheers在英式英语里面的一个独特含义，这个用法在英国相当普及，you could hear "cheers" all over the place, whether on the street, in pubs or at university among students...这时候，"cheers" is equivalent to "thank you" in response to a favour or assistance given。

原来"cheers"还有“谢谢”的意思。So any time you want to say thank you, you can just replace that with the word cheers in British English. 我们可以在大多数情况下把cheers这个词当作thank you来使用，不过"cheers" meaning "thanks" is slang or colloquial，用cheers会不会显得不正式呢？

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.

在英国，即使是在一个正式的场合，大家也都比较随便，所以不论你是在和老板或是一个陌生人说话的时候，都可以使用cheers这个词。

那么，cheers的这个含义是怎么产生的呢？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. 很多年前在英国，人们见面打招呼的时候会说good cheer to you或者be of good cheer。随着时间的推移，起先的问候语英经过多年的演变直到今天人们用cheers来表示谢谢thank you。

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

-- here's your spanner

--‘cheers’OR ‘cheers for that’

但是，你就不能这么说：

-- ‘cheers for getting my spanner’(你只可以说"thanks for getting my spanner")

再提供两个cheers的用法实例：

对话实例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.

对话实例2：

A: Two teas please.

B: Here you are.

A: Cheers.

"Cheers" is also commonly used in New Zealand for "thank you". 不过美式英语中"cheers"没有“谢谢”的含义。If you say cheers for thanks, you'll probably get a funny look from most uncultured Americans. 但是，随着近些年英国电影的影响和许多台词的编排（比如Harrison Ford和Brad Pitt主演的《与魔鬼同行》(The Devil's Own)中，扮演爱尔兰人的Pitt就说了好几次的cheers），美国人也知道了cheers的这个特殊的英式英语含义。所以如果你在美国用 cheers表示感谢，人们也不会觉得太奇怪。

最后，除了"cheers"，不要忘了"cheers, bro"和"cheers mate"，它们在英国都比"thank you"和"thanks"的出现频率高哦。注意，"cheers, bro" can be said to a friend (and not just your brother)。

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