“At the end of the day”基本上相当于中文里“讲到底”、“说穿了”、“到最后”一类的意思，几乎可以用在任何场合。例如：

You may attack me all you want, at the end of the day, I can’t care less. （随便你怎么攻击我，说穿了，我才不在乎呢。）

I don’t really wish to earn a whole lot of money, I just wanna be healthy. At the end of the day, that’s what really matters. （我并不希望赚大钱，我只希望身体健康。说到底，这才是真正重要的。）

这个英语短语甚至被用在了由关心妍演唱的这首《负担不起》粤语歌里()

Ah~~huh~~ 明天一觉睡醒 会是怎么的情形
从来没感觉到 是这心境
无论冷与暖也不起劲
很想放声 很想痛哭
在这世界里我最孤独
那天空多广阔 围着我的
是满载回忆的空屋
* 如果 让我可将功补过
换我再不必哭这么多
还为你我之间的故事 换个结果
人怎么懂得了更多
人怎么懂得了认错
来到 快要失去 尝试过苦楚
At the end of the day
我最需要的是你 不是谁
无能力失去你 像快枯死
如像缺氧 我负担不起
At the end of the day
我最疼爱的是你 不是谁
我有否这福气
在我每天醒来后
沉沦在你的体温与气味
迷惑我的心 Ah~~
Repeat *

但是因为用得实在太多了，在最近的一项世界范围的调查中“At the end of the day”已被列为最令人厌烦的英语词语。在这个黑名单上的还有一些海龟们经常使用的“thinking outside the box”, “value-added” 和 “ballpark figure”等时髦商务词语 :-)

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“At the end of the day” has been voted the most irritating phrase in the English language in a survey. “At this moment in time” and “like”, used like a punctuation mark, shared second place and “with all due respect” came fourth.

The Plain English Campaign questioned 5,000 people in over 70 countries.

“Using these terms in daily business is about professional as wearing a novelty tie or having a wacky ring tone on your phone,” the campaign concluded.

Spokesman John Lister says footballers are partly to blame for “at the end of the day” coming top in the survey.

He told BBC Radio Five Live: “I think people find it so irritating, partly because it’s so overused. If you’ve ever hear a football interview it seems to be used in place of a breath or a comma.

“It’s also partly because it’s so wrong - at the end of the day I go to sleep.”

He said it was time for people to start inventing new analogies.

“The problem with cliches is they’re things that were once fresh but are now so overused that, as soon as you hear it, your mind shifts your impression of the speaker,” he said.

“You’re thinking ‘Why are they using these phrases that are so old hat? You’re not David Brent - he’s funny on The Office but you’re not funny in real life’.”

Outside the box

The Plain English Campaign is an independent group “fighting for crystal-clear language and against jargon, gobbledygook and other confusing language”.

The survey was compiled as part of the build-up to its 25th anniversary on 26 July.

In the survey, business phrases, in particular, received the bulk of the nominations.

They included “thinking outside the box”, “value-added” and “ballpark figure”.

Other terms which received multiple nominations included “singing from the same hymn sheet”, “24/7″, “I hear what you’re saying” and “to be honest”.

Mr Lister urged people to follow George Orwell’s advice to “never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print”.

As Mr Lister said: “These phrases are so yesterday”.