Saturday, September 25, 2010

When I say "I am ambushed", is it same meaning to "I am surprised"?

Young-Min asks: When I say "I am ambushed", is it same meaning to "I am surprised"?

Well, it depends on the context. Usually, when someone says they have been ambushed, it implies surprise but also feeling overwhelmed and possibly that someone/something intended for them to be overwhelmed (or at least feel overwhelmed.) So, I can say my boss ambushed me at the end of the week with a new project due Monday. This suggests that the boss deliberately waited until the end of the week to surprise me with an overwhelming request.

I am surprised, by itself, communicates more the feeling one gets when presented with something unexpected, whether good, bad or neutral. So, I can say I was surprised when my boss asked me to start a new project just before the weekend. This says almost the same thing as I said above, but doesn't communicate to the listener that I felt overwhelmed or that I thought he deliberately waited until the end of the week.

Just a small note: "I am ambushed" strikes me as an unusual construction. It would be more common to say "I am feeling ambushed" or "I am being ambushed" in the present tense, where "I was ambushed" is perfectly common usage.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Appreaciate for the work you have done into the article, it helps clear up a few questions I had.