你如果稱讚老外聰明，告訴他: You're so clever，可能會看到他的臉馬上垮下來。
「你是說我，有小聰明嗎？」聽起來像稱讚的話，常常會讓人誤解。
每一字都不只有它的「意思」，它還有「意涵」，包含在同的時代當中演變出的不同用法，我們一來看看Clever這個字，是褒？是貶？我們一起來看看。 

Clever這個字是從兩個字演化來的
1. skillful：熟練的
2. shrewd：精明的、狡獪的、機巧的，常用在負面意思。
和它相近的字是smart。smart是最常見用法，指聰明，後來日文借了這個字，就出現「瀟灑」的意思。

Intelligent指人智商高，有才智；
Clever這個字，和中文裡的「機巧」相當，常常指人有能力快速地解決問題，或者幽默機智地處理事情，指人有小聰明，也就用這個字。形容狐狸，就常常用a clever fox。除了形容人和動物，它也可以用在，a clever idea/story/joke等。

來看幾個例句

• My best friend is extremely smart. He went to Harvard and got his PhD in physics.

• Pauline isn't very well educated, but she's very smart. She reads a lot in her free time and is very knowledgeable about many things.

• Jim was the only person in our class who could think of a solution to our problem. He's very clever.

• My friend is extremely witty and clever. Sometimes she makes me laugh so hard with the things she says.

• The suspense movie I saw yesterday had a very clever twist ending. I was very surprised.

• My husband came up with a very clever idea to make money while staying at home.

Clever的貶義，也可以在中國文壇的故事當窺見一斑。
大學問家錢鐘書一九七九年訪美，評價當時大陸流行女作家，清一色全用Clever。當水晶再問他「那張愛玲怎麼樣？」， 錢鐘書說：「She is more than clever!」有人說，由此可見他沒有景仰之情 ----這也是錢鐘書考證家們證實了的事實。

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