Xiaohua: Hello and welcome to Roundtable's Word of the Week.
John: And so this week we're going to be looking at how to talk about hitting people. We don't suggest you do hit people, but if you want to talk about hitting people in English, well, we'll give you some words and phrases. So there is bang, to hit or to punch. So if he keeps saying that, watch me walk over and bang him. Then there is beam, to hit in the head, so Tony just beamed me in the head with a pencil. That's usually when you're throwing something, and you get beamed. And then there is to brain, and that's to hit someone in the head quite hard.
Xiaohua: 英語中描述怎樣打人的詞匯還真的不少。我們就一個一個看過來。Bang, beam, 和brain都差不多，但有細微的區別。Bang是撞，beam是打頭，而beam是狠狠揍某人的頭。
John: Then there is to bust, to punch or hit. So if you don't shut up, I'm going to bust you in the mouth. And then a variation on that is bust on. The bouncers busted on some drunk guy last night. And then clock. Clock is usually to punch someone in the face.
Xiaohua: Bust本身就有打破的意思。To bust somebody就是揍某一個人的意思，bust on 也有同樣的意思。而clock就是揍臉。
John: And then crack, so hit or punch. Cream means to beat up or to hit extremely hard. Xiaohua really made me angry the other day so I just really had to cream her.
Xiaohua: I don't think you'd have the guts, though. Anyway, cream聽上去像是個好詞，但也可以用作狠狠打的意思。

John: Then fist of fives. So if you don't shut up, I'll give you a fist of fives. Get banked on. He really pissed those guys off and so he got banked on. Give a thumper, a thumper is a hit, a very strong hit, and so to give a thumper is to strike someone very hard.
Xiaohua: Fist of fives就不用解釋了。Get banked on挺有意思的。因為Bank on somebody不是有trust someone的意思嗎，但是when you get banked on, you're basically punched.
John: And then jack. He got jacked in the face. Then knock out, you see this a lot in boxing. So you hit someone so hard, usually in the face or in the head, that they lose consciousness. We were just playing around and I accidentally knocked him out.
Xiaohua: Knock out someone就是把某個人擊昏。
John: And then knuckle sandwich, very similar to fist of fives, but it's usually to the face or to the mouth area, because you give them a sandwich and you usually eat sandwiches.
Xiaohua: OK. 請別人吃拳頭做成的三明治嗎？Anyway，就是對臉一拳。
John: And then to nail is to hit forcefully with a blunt object. He got nailed in the face with the football. Or I nailed him with the basketball.
Xiaohua: Be nailed是被重物砸到。
John: And then to pop, to hit someone on the back of the head with the flat of one's hand. It's kind of like a slap, but to the back of the head, usually used to get a person's attention or to assert one's authority rather than to inflict harm. So it's really not meant to hurt someone, but you pop someone in the back of their head in order to get their attention, right?
Xiaohua: Pop是扇后腦勺，學生時代的你們如果不認真聽講的話經常會被老師pop。
John: Right? And then to smack, that's basically a type of slap. Sock is another type of hit, and last but not least, sucker punch, it's basically to attack sneakily. So a sucker punch is when someone is totally not expecting it, the fight hasn't started yet, you're not necessarily in an argument, but you just punch them in the face, without giving any kind of warning, that's what we call a sucker punch.
Xiaohua: Smack是扇，sock就是hit someone的意思，那sucker punch則是突襲。 OK, I have to admit there're far more words describing hitting someone in English than in Chinese.
John: There're quite a few. And a lot of them have definitely specific history in our culture. I will also advice our listeners that some of these words aren't only about hitting. A lot of it is slang usage. And so you may go up to someone and try to use this word, and they may not completely understand you given the context. For example, to nail, it can also be used to describe, in slang terms, sexual intercourse, or something like that. So on the one hand, these can be used depending on the context to talk about hitting or to be hit or something like that, but there's also many other uses for some of these words.
Xiaohua: 很多這些關于揍別人的詞都是有上下文，在一定的場合中才可以用的，而很多詞有多重的意思。所以如果用錯了還是挺麻煩的。
John: So just be prepared. There may be an instance where you don't use it correctly.
Xiaohua: And got smacked in the face.
John: Yeah, don't get popped.
Xiaohua: Alright. That's all we have for RoundTable's Word of the Week.