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「這個字是什麼意思?」這句話的英文怎麼說?
Apr 5th 2015, 22:37, by 世界公民文化中心

來源:世界公民文化中心

「這個字是什麼意思?」這句英文怎麼說?這個問句是我們中心學生和外籍老師間最常見的對話。但你知道嗎?它的錯誤率是87%。假如你的句子是像以下:

What's the word's meaning?
What meaning is the word?
What is the meaning for the word?

這三句都不好。

「意思」在中文裡是名詞,所以你很自然會想到meaning。但英文裡,mean可以當動詞,例如,問別人「你是什麼意思」:

(X)What is your mean?
(X)What is your meaning?
(O)What do you mean?

mean是動詞,直接用what do you mean即可。用 What is your meaning? 聽起來像問「你這人有何意義?」

同理,問「這個字是什麼意思?」,就說 What does the word mean?

Mean當動詞,進一步延伸「mean something」,意思是「真的有意義的」。例:
The book really means something to me.(這本書對我很有意義。)

還有常見的用法是,不小心說錯話,趕緊說:I didn‘t mean it.(我不是有意的。)

有時你說話,其他人不當真,你就會加一句;I mean it.,意思就是說:「我是說真的」。

不管是「What do you mean?」「mean something」、「I didn‘t mean it.」、還是「I mean it.」,雖然在各個句子的意思不盡相同,但是它們的原意是一樣的,都在表達:「我的意思是甚麼」。別受中文干擾,把mean當成名詞用。mean當然也有名詞、形容詞用法,那又是另外一課了。

三個月英文脫胎換骨的一對一:http://goo.gl/5eIOmf

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