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開會過了頭,時間不夠了,James就會說"The time isn't enough."或者執行專案的時間不足,他也會說"The time isn't enough."想不到這麼簡單的一句英文,居然是錯的。

中文裡有很多擬人化的說法,直接轉成英文,句子就會很怪。像我們之前舉過的例子:

(X)My job is busy.真正忙碌的是人,不是工作,所以是
(O)I am busy at work. 
同樣的,時間是客觀的,不會不夠,是我們沒有足夠的時間:

時間不夠。

(X)The time isn't enough.
(O)There isn't enough time.
(O)We don't have enough time.

要特別注意enough這個字,只要句子的主詞是代名詞,像it/there/that/this,它才能夠當做補語,例如:

(O)That's enough. Thank you.(夠了,謝謝。)

只要主詞不是代名詞,enough的後面都要接一個名詞,再來看一個例子:

我們專案的預算不夠。

(X)Our budget is not enough for the project.
(O)There isn't enough budget for the project.

類似這樣擬人化不自然的表達,再多舉幾個經常在課堂上聽到的例子:

我的文法有問題。

(X)My grammar has a problem.
(O)I have a problem with grammar.

文法本身沒什麼問題,是我們不瞭解它,所以用I have a problem with...才合理。同樣的道理,手機出問題、電腦出問題,也不要說

(X)My phone/computer has a problem.
(O)I have a problem with my phone/computer.

文章轉自{商業週刊}

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