易犯的英文文法的錯誤-4

易犯的英文文法的錯誤-4

Embarrassing Grammatical Mistakes Even Smart People Make

Note: 編按：

美國人的英文，由於疏忽或教育水準不佳，即使聰明人亦常有出錯，久而久之，習以為常，以為錯的就是對的，反正『大家都錯，便是大家都對』。但偶而也有好心人士挺身而出，糾正一下，接不接受隨你，因為離開學校後，不太有人願意或膽敢挑出你的錯誤……。下列為某女士苦口婆心之善言忠告，其實這些錯誤，也發生在其他英語系的民族身上，只是有人知道，有人卻不知道而已。

21. THE FIRST-YEAR ANNIVERSARY-周年紀念-(誤)

   The first anniversary –(正)

註：anniversary, 一字源自ano= year年，如annual a. 每年的，~ income年收入，~ report (銀行) 年度報告。anniversary前僅可加順序形容詞：first, second….50^th ~等，若加year則意思重複。

The use of the word "year" is redundant. (多餘的) "The first anniversary" or "the 50th anniversary" suffice. (周年或50周年，這樣意思就夠了。他例：Suffice it to say, 2.5 million of residents are living without power during the storm. (暴風雨期間，光說有2百50萬人沒有電力可用，就夠了)

22. WORSE COMES TO WORSE. (誤) 每下愈况

  Worse come to worst. (正)

"Worse comes to worst,"--note the t--is better because it indicates something has degraded from one negative plane to the lowest possible.

註：此片語指「負面」的境况，從「比較壞到最壞」，worse乃bad或ill之比較級；worst為最高級。他例：

He lost his way； to make matters worse, he was broke.  (他迷路了，正糟的是，身上分文沒有。)

At worst, 30% of the loss will be recovered. (至壞，30%的損失可以要回來)

另，「更好的」沒有人用 “better to best”, 但可用on top of …..(錦上添花的是,) 例，He passed the oral exam, and on top of that, he won full scholarship. 他通過了口試，更棒的是，他獲全額獎學金。

23. UNTHAW (誤)- 融冰

thaw (正)

Even though people use this word as a verb all the time, the best way to "un-thaw" something would be to put it in the freezer. Is freezing what you mean, or thawing?

註：即使人們常用此字當動詞用，但un-thaw(結冰) 則最好把東西放在冰箱。你到底指何義? 是冷凍? 還是解凍。thaw=to melt(溶冰) ；失去冷淡。故thaw不可再加un-表示否定，否則成為結凍。另註：un+v. =原義相反，如untie解開，unbutton解開鈕釦，unbend變直，uncover=disclose，undress(脫下衣物)揭發，undo取消，恢復原狀，What is done cannot be undone(覆水難收)…。**沒有把握的字，不可自己創造。

24. HOT WATER HEATER (誤) 熱水爐

WATER HEATER (正)

If anything, it's a cold water heater. Just use "water heater."

註：熱水爐，只可用water heater或heater表示，不必再加hot。因heat作Vt. 用即有「加熱」之意，故不必再加hot。但a cold water heater, 則指「未加温」的熱水爐。

25. BaLDFACE LIE (誤) 無恥的謊言

BoLD-FACEd LIE (正)

"Bold-face" means shameless or showing no guilt. When a person tells a bold-faced lie, they are openly lying. An acceptable variant of this phrase is a "barefaced lie."

註：boldface  n. 粗体鉛字；bold-face  n. bold-faced a. 厚顏的，bold-faced lie (= brazen, shameless=bold-faced)公然撒謊) ，也可用barefaced侮慢的。但bold-faced letters則是指粗體字印出的字母。另bald a. 禿頭的

Justin Lai編譯

09/16/2017