英語講義【97】常見動詞的錯誤用法

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英語動詞是所有詞類中最易犯錯的一種,許多英語運用上的毛病都和動詞有關。有時,連常用的動詞都會有用法上的錯誤。例如有些動詞意思相近,其實不盡然。至少,在用法上,會有所差別,如“ rise”和“raise”,“stay”和“remain”便是。有些動詞,單獨用時是一個意思和用法,加上介詞時,是另一個意思和用法,如“ see”和“see to”,“search”和“search for ”便是。
    下面就來詳細談談。先看這兩個句子:
    ① Sam raises very early every morning.
    ② The monitor rises his hand to ask a question.
    大家知道,raise是個及物動詞,意思是“舉起”,要有賓語; rise是個不及物動詞,意思是“起身”,不可有賓語。這里的①和② 都錯;raises和rises必須對換才對。
    ③ He remained in the Holiday Inn.
    ④ The flowers stayed on the branches.
    英語的remain是“留下來”;stay是“暫住”。顯然的,③和④ 是不合邏輯的,remained 和stayed必須互換。
    ⑤ A crook robbed her money.
    ⑥ A few masked men stole a small bank last night.
    雖然robbed和stole都是及物動詞,有自己的賓語,但是它們在這里的用法不當。Steal要跟著被偷的東西,如錢財、珠寶等;rob的賓語是“人”或“處所”。因此,⑤和⑥的robbed和stole要掉轉(zhuǎn)一下。
    類似的例子還有下面這些:
    ⑦ a. mend b. repair
    這兩個動詞都是“修理”;不同的是:簡單的工作,用mend;復雜的或需要特別儀器的事項,則用repair,如:
    ⑦a. You can mend the broken part of the page with glue.
    ⑦b. It took some time to repair the road.
    ⑧a. burned b. burnt
    這兩個動詞是burn的過去式和過去分詞;在句子中的崗位不同,通常有賓語時用“burnt”,沒賓語時用“burned”,如:
    ⑧a. The love of freedom burned in our hearts./ The candle has burned brightly for the whole night.
    ⑧b. Who has burnt the paper?/ Jane burnt all the letters from her former boyfriend.
    至于“動詞”和“助動+介詞”的誤用,我們可以看下面兩組例子:
    ⑨ The police searched the suspects in the shopping centre, but nobody was arrested.
    ⑩ I searched for my pocket and found some coins.
    從語感就知道,⑨和⑩里的searched和searched for是倒置了。 ⑨要的是“尋找”(searched for);⑩要的是“檢查”(searched ),兩者對換才是。
    (11) The boy says when he grows, he will be a teacher.
    (12) Their business grows up rapiding.
    英語的grow是“發(fā)展”;grow up是“長大”。顯然的,(11)和(12) 的兩個動詞又誤用了,要對調(diào)一下。
    上面各例證明,英語動詞真是不簡單??此茮]什么問題的,也出現(xiàn)了問題,更何況是復雜特殊的用法呢?