Does "undercut" have a simliar meaning with "affect" in the sentence?

[sky753]

Hello Everyone,

The following sentence originates from Longman Online Dictionary.

I would like to know if "affect" can substitute "undercut" in the following sentence? And what are undercut's synonyms under the meaning suggested in the sentence?

Is a lack of self-confidence undercutting your performance at work?

Thanks and Best Regards

Sky

[Rossming]

hi sky
just passed by and found ur question funny but really practical
well,as i feel,it would be much better if we just remain"undercut"coz it's much more vivid and picturesque.the two words"undercut"and"affect"do have something in common with each other in terms of the meaning.however,"affect"is regarded as much more informal than"undercut".we seldom use the latter in daily conversations.in addition,a case in point is"inflation undercuts consumer buying power".thus,the word"undercut"is used a lot in magazines,papers or something like that.by the way,it is also similar to the word"undermine" and u can check it out if u like.
hope i didn't make a pig's ear of the explanation,hehe.u get the picture now?

[sky753]

Originally Posted by Rossming

hi sky
just passed by and found ur question funny but really practical
well,as i feel,it would be much better if we just remain"undercut"coz it's much more vivid and picturesque.the two words"undercut"and"affect"do have something in common with each other in terms of the meaning.however,"affect"is regarded as much more informal than"undercut".we seldom use the latter in daily conversations.in addition,a case in point is"inflation undercuts consumer buying power".thus,the word"undercut"is used a lot in magazines,papers or something like that.by the way,it is also similar to the word"undermine" and u can check it out if u like.
hope i didn't make a pig's ear of the explanation,hehe.u get the picture now?

Dear Rossming,

Thanks very much for your wonderful explanations! From your reply, I feel your level is higher. As our mother tognue are Chinese, you may appreciate why I raise such question. Recently, I am going over all the new words I have touched this year! Since I wish to increase my interpretation level, every time I encounter a sentence which I can't get full idea of , I will make some effort to translate it. While translating, it is somewhat difficult to understand the sentence. The longman says one of the meanings of undercut is"make sth weaker or less effective" . It seems to me that the sentence can not be translated as "是不是缺乏信心使你信心减弱了＂．　This translation ,obviously, doesn't suit Chinese habit. Therefore, I thought of the word "affect", because I think 影响 is better in the above Chinese sentence. By the way , could you give me your translation of the sentence!

With regards to your opinion that undercover is more vivid and picturisque. I quite agree with you. Recently I am feeling that Chinese is more logical while English is more picturisque. You will find it easier to understand a vocabulary if you can apply picturisque mind. Such word like distill,undercover, undercut,highlight,...

Waiting for your reply and instructions

Regards

Sky

[BobK]

The reason* that they are not synonymous is that 'affect' can mean 'affect in a good/positive way'. If you want to make affect have the meaning you want you have to add a word - something like 'affect adversely'.

Of course, given the context (in this case) the "adversely" is implicit.

b

PS *Another reason is that "undercut" doesn't work in this context. I'm surprised that Longman's use it; perhaps there's some more context to the example - though I can't think what. If you "undercut" something you don't "reduce" (or "affect") it in any way; you compete with it by being smaller -
Example:
My local shop charges 90p for a bottle of milk, but the new supermarket undercuts that by 30p.

I'm afraid I don't have time to check other dictionaries this morning; this is just my native speaker intuition.

[Rossming]

Originally Posted by sky753

Dear Rossming,

Thanks very much for your wonderful explanations! From your reply, I feel your level is higher. As our mother tognue are Chinese, you may appreciate why I raise such question. Recently, I am going over all the new words I have touched this year! Since I wish to increase my interpretation level, every time I encounter a sentence which I can't get full idea of , I will make some effort to translate it. While translating, it is somewhat difficult to understand the sentence. The longman says one of the meanings of undercut is"make sth weaker or less effective" . It seems to me that the sentence can not be translated as "是不是缺乏信心使你信心减弱了＂．　This translation ,obviously, doesn't suit Chinese habit. Therefore, I thought of the word "affect", because I think 影响 is better in the above Chinese sentence. By the way , could you give me your translation of the sentence!

With regards to your opinion that undercover is more vivid and picturisque. I quite agree with you. Recently I am feeling that Chinese is more logical while English is more picturisque. You will find it easier to understand a vocabulary if you can apply picturisque mind. Such word like distill,undercover, undercut,highlight,...

Waiting for your reply and instructions

Regards

Sky

hi shy,
nice to meet u here again!really appreciate ur being so kind and friendly to pay me a compliment.hehe,well,guess i'm really flattered.
ok,i'm gonna stop beating about the bush and get to the point.as far as the sentence is concerned,i think we might as well translate it into chinese like this"是不是由于缺乏自信心而使得你的办事效率很低”coz there is a word"performance"among the sentence and u gotta pay special attention to it.what do u say then?hehe.
actually,i do admire ppl who fancy asking questions and have strong passion for learning like u!well,as for me,i'm not so familiar with stuff here and totally new to the website.guess there is so much to explore and to learn!hehe.so do u mind my asking u what u do for living then?u mentioned in the message that u r some kind of interpreter?actually my ideal job is becoming an amazing interpreter in the near future.however,i fully understand there is a long way to go!!lol
take care then my friend
best wishes!!
Rossming

[sky753]

Originally Posted by Rossming

hi shy,
nice to meet u here again!really appreciate ur being so kind and friendly to pay me a compliment.hehe,well,guess i'm really flattered.
ok,i'm gonna stop beating about the bush and get to the point.as far as the sentence is concerned,i think we might as well translate it into chinese like this"是不是由于缺乏自信心而使得你的办事效率很低”coz there is a word"performance"among the sentence and u gotta pay special attention to it.what do u say then?hehe.
actually,i do admire ppl who fancy asking questions and have strong passion for learning like u!well,as for me,i'm not so familiar with stuff here and totally new to the website.guess there is so much to explore and to learn!hehe.so do u mind my asking u what u do for living then?u mentioned in the message that u r some kind of interpreter?actually my ideal job is becoming an amazing interpreter in the near future.however,i fully understand there is a long way to go!!lol
take care then my friend
best wishes!!
Rossming

Very Glad to get your interpretation!

I took "performance" as "confidence". I feel it is better to translate the sentence as " 是不是由于缺乏自信心影响了你的工作表现．＂Can you give me some comments on my translation?

From my own experience, I have found USINGENGLISH.COM is a wonderful website. There are lots of nice teachers with high academic level here, who can always offer you satifactory answers! You will benefit a lot from them, I am sure!

I am sharing the same ideal with you. That's to be a qualified interpreter. It is not easy for me to be an excellent one, taking into my age, will power, intelligence, academic background into consideration! To be an interperter, the most important , in my opinion, is that our will power must be as strong as diamond to resist all the temptations outside.If can, we are sure to realize our aspirations.

With regards your question about my job, it is not important. Maybe i will send you E-mail, briefing myself!

Hope to make great progress in English studying along with you!

Regards

SKY

[Rossming]

nice

[Rossming]

Originally Posted by Rossming

nice

hi shy
don't be so courteous to me.we gotta help each other to move along together on this road to achieving our common goal of being a qualified and excellent interpreter right?hehe.
well,actually,i identify with u as far as ur own translation is concerned.u translated"performance"into"表现“.it's nice for sure.as a matter of fact,we all know that the literal meaning of"performance"is"表现".i thus think that we have made a fuss of the translation.i believe sometimes we might as well take translation easily and randomly as long as it's appropriate.
hey!i don't agree with u on ur reasons for ur not being able to become an amazing interpreter i'm afraid.u r kind of negative and lack of confidence.always remember"nothing is impossible to a willing and bold heart!"as u mentioned,we must be as strong as diamond to resist all the temptations outside.although"diamond cuts diamond",we gotta always have confidence in ourselves.despite the fact that we will never be able to be the best,we can try to increasingly improve,enhance and advance ourselves to become much better and nothing is gonna stop us!!
hope ur heart can be like a singing bird every day my friend
take care then sky
chat soon!!
Rossming

[sky753]

Originally Posted by Rossming

hi shy
don't be so courteous to me.we gotta help each other to move along together on this road to achieving our common goal of being a qualified and excellent interpreter right?hehe.
well,actually,i identify with u as far as ur own translation is concerned.u translated"performance"into"表现“.it's nice for sure.as a matter of fact,we all know that the literal meaning of"performance"is"表现".i thus think that we have made a fuss of the translation.i believe sometimes we might as well take translation easily and randomly as long as it's appropriate.
hey!i don't agree with u on ur reasons for ur not being able to become an amazing interpreter i'm afraid.u r kind of negative and lack of confidence.always remember"nothing is impossible to a willing and bold heart!"as u mentioned,we must be as strong as diamond to resist all the temptations outside.although"diamond cuts diamond",we gotta always have confidence in ourselves.despite the fact that we will never be able to be the best,we can try to increasingly improve,enhance and advance ourselves to become much better and nothing is gonna stop us!!
hope ur heart can be like a singing bird every day my friend
take care then sky
chat soon!!
Rossming

It seems to me that you are quite optimistic about yourself and your life! That's quite good I think, esp when you are in the adverse circumstances. If in such situations, one can maintain such state of mind. He is really something. You know life can't always go smoothly!

And I know that you use several idioms in your converstations. To tell you the truth, I have not got that much in my mind, as a matter of fact , almost none. Maybe , I think you have seen a lot of English films? If you do have such experience, I would like to know here how we should we watch the English film! I find it very difficult for me to follow up the conversation in the film. Do you think it helps if I watch the film while staring at the sentences showing on the screens(only English I mean) if I can't catch the meaning simply by hearing?

Waiting for your reply!

Regards

Sky

[Rossming]

Originally Posted by sky753

It seems to me that you are quite optimistic about yourself and your life! That's quite good I think, esp when you are in the adverse circumstances. If in such situations, one can maintain such state of mind. He is really something. You know life can't always go smoothly!

And I know that you use several idioms in your converstations. To tell you the truth, I have not got that much in my mind, as a matter of fact , almost none. Maybe , I think you have seen a lot of English films? If you do have such experience, I would like to know here how we should we watch the English film! I find it very difficult for me to follow up the conversation in the film. Do you think it helps if I watch the film while staring at the sentences showing on the screens(only English I mean) if I can't catch the meaning simply by hearing?

Waiting for your reply!

Regards

Sky

well,as for my being using a lot of idioms,i got something to say.
actually,gaining some exposure to some basic american or british idioms can be really beneficial and enriching i bet u know.besides, a saying among english learners and language teachers appealing to me goes like this"it can be impossible for ppl who know crap about idioms to really have a stable mastery of english no matter how large vocabulary they got coz about half of the daily conversations involve idioms...."
as far as i am concerned,one thing for sure is that i do gain access to english movies once in a while to relax myself as well as to learn something like idioms at the same time.i bought myself a book concerning american idioms a long time ago and try to get a load of it when i'm available.however,to be honest,i've been really lazy and idle and haven't touch it for a while.hehe
well,u better not stare at the words while watching a movie coz it's gonna be harmful in terms of learning english and u will barely learn.from my humble view and experience,i would like to advise u to keep from watching a single line when u r in the middle of a movie.just get urself a script of the movie by means of downloading online and read carefully the lines actors and actresses said in the movie after u finish watching it.at the same time,u gotta try to use ur imagination to recall the scenes of the movies so as to help u remember some amazing and useful lines which contain loads of idioms.hehe.guess it's an efficient way to enlarge ur idioms.by the way,u better buy an idiom book like i did and read it when u r free!
am i making myself clear then? hope u can get something!! lol
Rossming