英语动词是所有词类中最易犯错的一种,许多英语运用上的毛病都和动词有关。有时,连常用的动词都会有用法上的错误。例如有些动词意思相近,其实不尽然。至少,在用法上,会有所差别,如rise和raise,stay和remain便是。有些动词,单独用时是一个意思和用法,加上介词时,是另一个意思和用法,如see和see to,search和search for便是。
下面就来详细谈谈。先看这两个句子:
①Sam raises very early every morning.
②The monitor rises his hand to ask a question.
大家知道,raise是个及物动词,意思是举起,要有宾语;rise是个不及物动词,意思是起身,不可有宾语。这里的①和②都错;raises和rises必须对换才对。
③He remained in the Holiday Inn.
④The flowers stayed on the branches.
英语的remain是留下来stay是暂住。显然的,③和④是不合逻辑的,remained和stayed必须互换。
⑤A crook robbed her money.
⑥A few masked men stole a small bank last night.
虽然robbed和stole都是及物动词,有自己的宾语,但是它们在这里的用法不当。Steal要跟着被偷的东西,如钱财、珠宝等;rob的宾语是人或处所。因此,⑤和⑥的robbed和stole要掉转一下。
类似的例子还有下面这些:
⑦a. mendb. repair
这两个动词都是修理不同的是:简单的工作,用mend;复杂的或需要特别仪器的事项,则用repair,如:
⑦a. You can mend the broken part of the page with glue.
⑦b. It took some time to repair the road.
⑧a. burnedb. burnt
这两个动词是burn的过去式和过去分词;在句子中的岗位不同,通常有宾语时用burnt,没宾语时用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.
至于动词和助动+介词的误用,我们可以看下面两组例子:
⑨The police searched the suspects in the shopping centre, but nobody was arrested.
⑩I searched for my pocket and found some coins.
从语感就知道,⑨和⑩里的searched和searched for是倒置了。⑨要的是寻找(searched for);⑩要的是检查(searched),两者对换才是。
⑾The boy says when he grows, he will be a teacher.
⑿Their business grows up rapidly.
英语的grow是发展grow up是长大。显然的,(11)和(12)的两个动词又误用了,要对调一下。
上面各例证明,英语动词真是不简单。看似没什么问题的,也出现了问题,更何况是复杂特殊的用法呢?
上一篇: 常用的比喻词组
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