April 20, 2015　=========
☆ quibble　ケチをつける
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This week we move on to verbs. Today’s word, “quibble” is used when you are arguing about small things that are not really important. Often when people quibble, they do it even though they know that what they are arguing about is not important.
I saw some Japanese news last week about a woman who was arrested for cutting her husband with a knife because of a smelly toilet! Is that true? I wonder if I really understood the news because I was reading it in Japanese… anyway, if that kind of thing was a joke, then you would say it was a quibble, for example, “They always quibble over the smelly toilet.” However, you need to be careful when using the word “quibble” because the other person might think the topic is important, even if you think it is not really important, in which case if you said, “Let’s not quibble” then this would make them more angry rather than less, because they would think you are making fun of them. In other words, it would be better to say, “Let’s not argue” as it sounds like you think it is an important matter.
Bye,
Chris