英語動(dòng)詞是所有詞類中最易犯錯(cuò)的一種,許多英語運(yùn)用上的毛病都和動(dòng)詞有關(guān)。有時(shí),連常用的動(dòng)詞都會(huì)有用法上的錯(cuò)誤。例如有些動(dòng)詞意思相近,其實(shí)不盡然。至少,在用法上,會(huì)有所差別,如“ rise”和“raise”,“stay”和“remain”便是。有些動(dòng)詞,單獨(dú)用時(shí)是一個(gè)意思和用法,加上介詞時(shí),是另一個(gè)意思和用法,如“ see”和“see to”,“search”和“search for ”便是。
下面就來詳細(xì)談?wù)劇O瓤催@兩個(gè)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(gè)及物動(dòng)詞,意思是“舉起”,要有賓語; rise是個(gè)不及物動(dòng)詞,意思是“起身”,不可有賓語。這里的①和② 都錯(cuò);raises和rises必須對(duì)換才對(duì)。
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(dòng)詞,有自己的賓語,但是它們?cè)谶@里的用法不當(dāng)。Steal要跟著被偷的東西,如錢財(cái)、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. mendb. repair
這兩個(gè)動(dòng)詞都是“修理”;不同的是:簡(jiǎn)單的工作,用mend;復(fù)雜的或需要特別儀器的事項(xiàng),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. burnedb. burnt
這兩個(gè)動(dòng)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(shí)用“burnt”,沒賓語時(shí)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(dòng)詞”和“助動(dòng)+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(duì)換才是。
⑾The boy says when he grows, he will be a teacher.
⑿Their business grows up rapidly.
英語的grow是“發(fā)展”;grow up是“長(zhǎng)大”。顯然的,(11)和(12) 的兩個(gè)動(dòng)詞又誤用了,要對(duì)調(diào)一下。
上面各例證明,英語動(dòng)詞真是不簡(jiǎn)單。看似沒什么問題的,也出現(xiàn)了問題,更何況是復(fù)雜特殊的用法呢?