你知道英語單詞buy和purchase的差別嗎?

As you know, "buy" and "purchase" can be used in similar sentences. They can both be used either as a noun or a verb.

眾所周知，「buy」和「purchase」都可以用於相同的句子中。兩者都是動名詞同體詞。

One difference between them is how formal they sound. Compare the following sentences. Put "buy" or "purchase" in the space.

區別之一就是兩者的正式程度。請試著將 「buy」或「purchase」填入下面句子橫線內。

I would like to ______ a new home.

She wants to _____ a hamburger.

Like most English speakers, I would say "purchase" for the home and "buy" for the hamburger. You probably wonder, why does English have two words with exactly the same meaning?

大多數英語母語者會傾向選擇「purchase」和home（房子）搭配，」buy」和hamburger（漢堡）搭配。你可能會想知道，那為什麼英語要用兩個詞來表達一個相同的意思呢？

History of the words單詞的歷史

We can understand this better with a little history. English developed from the languages of Germanic tribes of Northern Europe. Words from that time are what we call Anglo-Saxon. In the year 1066, William the Conqueror and his forces began to take over England. William was from Normandy, in France. For the next 300 years, everyone in English courts and in government spoke French. English was a language for everyday use.

我們可以通過一個小故事來更好的了解當中的原因。英語是由北歐日耳曼部落語言發展而引來的。那時，英語被稱為安格魯撒克遜語。到了1066年，來自法國諾曼第的徵服者威廉開始武統英格蘭。從那時起的300年間，英國法庭和政府裡的每個人都說法語，而英語則作為一種日常使用語言。

As a result, French had a great effect on the English language: about 10,000 French words were added to English. We still use many of them today. As you might suspect, English speakers use the French words for more formal situations and the Anglo-Saxon words for common ideas and things.

One way you can tell the difference between the French words and the Anglo-Saxon words is their length. Anglo-Saxon words, like "buy," are often short, while "purchase" and other French words are longer.

法語由此開始對英語產生了極大的影響：大約有10，000法語詞融入了英語當中。許多沿用至今。所以你可以看出，英語母語者在正式場合會使用更為正式的法語單詞，而安格魯撒克遜單詞則多用於日常生活。區別兩者的方法之一就是單詞自身的長度。例如安格魯撒克遜中的買「buy」，一般會比較短。而法語中的買「purchase」一般會比較長。

Buy

How to use "buy" and "purchase"？ We usually use "buy" as a verb. For example,

I will buy food for the party.

如何使用這兩個詞呢？我們通常將「buy」作為動詞使用。例如，派對的食物由我負責購買。

It is not so common to see "buy" as a noun, but you do find it in cases like this:

The police stopped a drug buy on the street.

「buy」作為名詞的情況比較罕見，但也有作為名詞使用的例子，如下：

警察在街上阻止了一起毒品交易。

Purchase

We often use the verb "purchase" for when legal documents are involved, such as in:

The government purchased a new contract for 1,000 airplanes.

在涉及法律文書時，我們通常會使用」purchase」的動詞形式，例如：

政府籤署了一份購買1000架飛機的新合同。

And you should use "purchase" when you need a noun form, as in:

而使用」purchase」作為名詞的用法，可參考下列例句：

You made a smart purchase when you bought gas before the price went up.

你在氣價上漲前就買了，真是明智之舉。

In summary, try to use "buy" for simple actions, and "purchase" for more formal exchanges of money for goods.

總之，在普通場合發生的購買動作，我們選擇使用「buy」，而在更為正式的買賣場合，我們選擇使用「purchase」。

編譯：By Aslan, April 26, 2020