BOOKMAN BILINGUAL 雙語書林 Chinglish or Natural English? 中式英語或道地英語？

ˇ His wife tried to persuade him to give up drinking, but in vain.

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χ His wife persuaded him to give up drinking, but in vain.

註︰persuade 是「說服」，沒有說服成功，就不能用 persuade，應用 advise 或 try to persuade，錯句中上下文顯然有矛盾。

2. 他們難道不準備在會議上說些什麼嗎？

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ˇ Aren’t they planning to say something at the meeting?

χ Aren’t they planning to speak something at the meeting?

註︰speak 指「講」的發聲；say 指「講」的達意。孩子牙牙學語，可以說 The baby is learning to speak, but he is unable to say anything.。啞巴不能 speak，而瘋子能 speak，但不能 say anything sensible。可以說 speak English ( / Chinese / the Shanghai dialect / a foreign language), speak at the meeting, speak to/with someone, speak about / of something, speak on some subject；不可以說 *speak something，應說 say something（或nothing）。

3. 我寫那篇報告只花一個鐘頭。

ˇ I only spent one hour writing the report.

ˇ It only took me one hour to write the report.

ˇ Writing the report only took me one hour.

χ I only took one hour writing the report.

註︰「用掉了多少時間」，如主詞是人，用 spend... ＋ 動名詞，但如果主詞是事物，則必須用 take... ＋ 不定詞，而不用 spend。

4. 醫生將在三點給他動手術。

ˇ The doctor will perform the operation on him at three o’clock.

χ The doctor will make an operation on him at three o’clock.

註︰「動手術」是 to perform an operation 或 to operate，不說 *to make an operation 或 *to do an operation。「為某人動手術治療某種疾病」，應說 perform an operation on someone for some disease。

5. 我說服她改變主意。

ˇ I persuaded her to change her mind.

χ I convinced her to change her mind.

註︰convince 是「使（人）信服」，即 make one believe；persuade 的第一意義等於 convince，第二意義是「說服（人）」、「勸服（人）」，即 make one act。要使別人有所行動，往往要先使他信服。例如：

We convinced (/persuaded) him that we were right and he was wrong.

We convinced him that it was his duty and persuaded him to do it at once.

Exercises

A. 我花了半個月的時間才使他相信天然飲食有助於他康復。

It took me half a month to __________ him that a natural diet can help him recover from his illness.

1. convince 2. persuading 3. advise 4. suggest

B. 我能佔用你幾分鐘嗎？我有一些話要對你說。

Could you spare me a few minutes? I have something to __________ to you.

1. say 2. speak 3. tell 4. declare

Answers: A. 1 B. 1

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蘇正隆 — 台灣翻譯學學會前理事長、師大翻譯研究所兼任副教授; 編著《走讀自然.花言樹語》，《英語的對與錯》，《世紀病毒：必讀防疫英文知識與詞彙》...等。國家教育研究院中英雙語詞彙審議委員；研究領域為翻譯、術語及詞典編譯，從事植物與人文導覽數十年，亦曾應邀遠赴國外大學做植物人文導覽。