生活和工作壓力英文怎樣說？

 你知道生活壓力和工作壓力的英文是什麼嗎？話說早前晚上看哨牙妹的Facebook，那裏是找尋寫作靈感題材的好地方。我看到她提出了一個有趣的問題。她問：「生活壓力的英文是什麼？」她說：「不能說life pressure，因為外國人不會明白。跟著有人問她應該怎樣說，她的答案是，她認為生活和工作壓力可以簡單地譯做stress，連life或work那些字眼也不需要。

我不同意她這個草率的說法。我認為，除非你只是泛指壓力，那你可以用stress或pressure；否則你便應該說明是那種壓力，因為這世界上還有很多其他不同種類的壓力，如mental stress, emotional stress, family stress, financial stress等。那在現實世界中人們又是如何運用的呢？

要說壓力，你用stress或pressure都可以，二者出現的頻率都差不多。先說生活壓力，我們來看看現實世界中的用法：

all the stresses of public life (LDOCE)

the stresses and strains of everyday life (LDOCE)

The city's many parks offer a comforting relief from the stress of modern life. (LDOCE)

I feel I’m not able to cope well with the pressures of life. (LDOCE)

She was dealing with the pressures of everyday life. (MWALD)

The beautiful gardens offer a refuge from the stresses of daily life. (MED)

the pressures of modern life (MED)

The pressures of modern life are great. (Cobuild)

She failed to withstand the stresses and strains of public life. (OALD)

Many workers experience a high level of stress in their daily life. (OALD)

How can anyone enjoy the pressures of city life? (OALD)

以上是說生活壓力的例句，你可以說stress(es) of life或pressures of life。不知你們有沒有留意到一點，說stress(es) of life時，那個stress可以是單數或複數，但說pressures of life時，那個pressures卻必定是複數，何解？

跟著我們看看工作壓力的例句：

She’s been under stress at work. (Longman Business Dictionary)

I’m under constant pressure at work. (LDOCE)

The pressures of work can make you ill. (LDOCE)

I just can't take the pressure at work anymore. (LDOCE)

Can he handle the pressure of the job? (MWALD)

She's been experiencing a lot of pressure at work lately. (MWALD)

I'm sorry for being grumpy. I've been under (a lot of) stress at work lately. (MWALD)

the stresses and strains of the job (CALD)

All that stress at work had begun to drag him down (CALD).

work/workplace/occupational stress (CALD)

The pressures of work are making her depressed.(Cambridge Business Dictionary)

Our partner may be harassed and grumpy with work pressures or trying to make ends meet.

THE SUN (2016)

compensation claims for undue stress in the workplace (OALD)

You need to be able to handle pressure in this job. (OALD)

She was unable to attend because of the pressure of work. (OALD)

About half of Hong Kong people suffer from hair loss due to stress and working pressure, a study has shown. (Oxford Dictionary)

說工作壓力，我們也可以有很多不同的說法，並不是如哨牙妹所說只能簡單地譯做stress。有一點可以解釋一下，pressure of work是指工作上的壓力，而pressure at work則是工作時的壓力，二者分別不大，可以互通。

回說為什pressures of life必定是複數，但pressure(s) of work卻不一定這問題。我猜想是生活壓力包括很多不同的壓力，如之前提過的精神壓力，財務上的壓力，工作上的壓力等，所以必然是複數。而stress(es) of life有時是複數，有時是單數，那是要看你當這名詞是uncountable noun，還是countable noun用。pressure(s) of work的pressure通常是一個countable noun，可泛指工作壓力或工作上的不同壓力如老闆的壓力，生意/財務上的壓力等等。

另外，如果你看Oxford Dictionary，你會發覺stresses解「壓力」時，經常會和strains這字連用。看看下面這些例子：

stresses and strains of everyday's life/life's stresses and strains/ stresses and strains of modern living/stresses and strains of work/ stresses and strains of the working day/stresses and strains of city living

最後，我們來探討一個問題。既然工作壓力我們可以譯作work(ing) pressures)，那生活壓力又是否能譯作life pressures呢？我的看法是這樣的，你上網搜尋一下，還真會見到有一些外國人用life pressures這說法，只是並不普遍。所以你不能像哨牙妹一樣說人家錯，外國人見到也不會不明白。同樣道理，上面Oxford Dictionary也有這句例句：

Exercise actually helps us fight against anxiety and depression, and a strong immume system makes the mind better able to cope with life's stresses and strains. (Oxford Dictionary)

這句也是將life放在前面，形成一個genitive case，而不是放在後面作一個prepositional phrase。再看一例：

He gave in to the social pressures to act and dress like everybody else. (MWALD)

這句social pressures指社會上的各種壓力，也是用social來修飾pressure，不一定要寫作the pressures of society。

總結：其實做任何事，無論是英文、醫學、還是風水，你要知道自己的觀點理論有沒有錯，只要將之驗證於現實世界中，便一目瞭然，不用拗！

所有心情：

1Felix Cheung