在學習單詞時我們要注意些什麼?中和大家分享過「不是遵循語法規則造出來的句子就一定是正確的!」
除了常見的一些搭配外,我們要注意一些英文的「慣用法」,也就是一些「難以解釋但是native speakers認為理所當然的用法」。有些詞一般用在形容詞前有些詞一般用在形容詞後;有些詞是自帶「情感態度價值觀的」; 有的詞是formal用法,有的是informal,有的是在英國常用有的是在美國常用。在我們學習的時候要注意這個詞的「使用特點」「感情色彩」還有「語域」(register)。
我們在學習單詞的時候不能只顧生詞,還要兼顧到不斷複習和補充自己認為已經掌握的詞,問問自己「這個詞我會用嗎?」 能否立刻說出這個詞的「語法特點是什麼?習慣搭配有哪些?」 若稍有疑問,就去認真查下字典。晨讀群在讀A Diary of a Wimpy Kid,是很多人不屑一讀的兒童讀物,我隨手摘抄幾句考考大家能否立刻說出黑體字部分的意思:
I could be in for a rough ride.
There’s this one dog that really has it in for me.
I went up to her room to thank her, but she was out cold.
But if I’m ever hard up for cash I know I can always go to the spot between Tickles four and five to get out of a jam.
So I let him take a bottle and made a note to dock his pay later on.
It was pretty obvious Cedric had cornered the lemonade market.
His parents make him get up at 5:00 in the morning to study for the geography bee.
We realized we were just gonna have to suck it up and man the lemonade stand full-time.
不認識的話不要沮喪,很多我一開始也不認識。自己沒有見到過沒查過字典,當然會不認識。但是要承認自己不認識,別管這個詞多簡單,你不認識不會用那就好好學習一下,勿以詞小而不查。在這裡再次推薦一下朗文字典,我認為每一位英語學習者都應該每天用它查上幾十次才行,尤其是注意其中的「Longman Communication 3000」。這3000個詞佔了朗文語料庫的86%,凡是代有標記為是屬於這3000詞的詞彙,都應該認真研習其語法特點、習慣搭配等。配合使用一本雙解詞典(例如柯林斯)和Oxford Collacation Dictionary使用效果更佳。
Of course, 「knowing」 a word involves more than simply being ableto recognise it and know a main meaning of it. Many of the most frequent words have a range of different meanings, a variety ofdifferent grammatical patterns, and numeroussignicant collocations. Nonetheless, a basicunderstanding of the Longman Communication3000 is a very powerful tool and will helpstudents develop good comprehension andcommunication skills in English.
另外要提醒大家不要去「背字典」。字典可以放在床頭和衛生間沒事讀一讀,但是刻意地去背字典是個低效的方法。詞彙的學習還是需要大量的閱讀來邂逅,從陌生人搭訕到曖昧,然後慢慢找機會和ta上床把ta搞定... 在這個過程中勤查字典和總結、複習即可。
今早的晨讀遇到這樣一句話:
根據Mom suggested I take a look at the French horn...這句話,我問晨讀的一位朋友「Eric建議Lily看一看法國號」怎麼說?她說「Eric suggested Lily to take a look at the French horn...」 這個句子是錯的。我問這個問題就是知道可能會掉進suggest的用法的坑裡(Why? because I've been there!)
《柯林斯高階英漢雙解詞典》說:
suggest 後通常不能直接跟指人的名詞或代詞,一般要在這類名詞或代詞之前加介詞 to。不能說 suggest someone something,而說 suggest something to someone,例如:John Caskey first suggested this idea to me (約翰·卡斯基首先向我提出了這一想法)。一般也不說suggest someone to do something,除非 suggest 表示推薦; 一般會說 suggest that someone does something,例如:Beatrice suggested that he spend the summer at their place (比阿特麗斯提議他在他們那裡度夏)。不要混淆suggest 和 advise。suggest 表示提出供他人考慮的想法或計劃。advise 表示建議某人做某事,例如:I advised him to leave as soon as possible (我建議他儘快離開)。
《英語常用詞疑難用法手冊》說:
中文很普遍的「兼語式」(「建議」某人去做某事)不能套在suggest上,也就是說,不能suggest somebody to do something,要改為suggest that(that可省略),從句的謂語動詞用虛擬語氣(should + inf. 或inf.)或直陳語氣都可以。【例如】What do you suggest we do about it? (John Darnton, The Darwin Conspiracy, p. 170) 咱們對此該怎麼辦,你有什麼建議嗎?/ Her uncle suggested that she (should) get (gets) a job in a bank. (*Her uncle suggested her to get...) 她叔父建議她找一份銀行的工作。如果是當堂提建議,則不要用should。【例如】I suggest that you get a job in a bank. 我建議你去找一份銀行的工作。
通過查查字典我們掌握了suggest這個詞的用法,了解到它和advise的不同之處,學到了「兼語式」這個概念。不查不知道,一查嚇一跳。
另外我們要特別記憶那些自己讀得懂但是「覺得彆扭」的表達(前提是這個表達是正確的),用李笑來的話說是「不直觀的對應」,例如「我從未想過」我們可能會說I never thoguht of/that... 但更地道的表達可能是It never occurred to me that… 遇到這樣的表達就把它背下來。葛傳槼先生在《向學習英語者講話》中有一篇題為「Knowing Just Enough Grammar to Go Wrong" 還提醒我們別糾結語法,記住地道表達即可:
There are several forms of expression that are purely idiomatic and do not admit of grammatical analysis. The word "busy", for example, may be used immediately before a gerund looking like a participle, as in "He is busy writing letters."
In your reading, reader, take care to note down those idiomatic constructions that you do not find grammatical enough. Commit them to memory and try to use them in your writing.
有些時候我們需要對語法較真,例如see sb. do/doing有沒有什麼不同?有時候記下來就好了。慢慢地你會發現語法書中的很多規則都會有特例,防不勝防,那就保證自己寫出來的、說出來的句子都是自己讀到過的、聽到到過的就好了。be busy後接現在分詞,記住這麼用就好了!然後接觸多了你會發現更多這樣的句子,例如: Do you have difficulty getting up? We had a hard time getting here. Diary of a Wimpy Kid中有這麼一段,我們讀到了後,仿照這個句型來造句即可,至於為什麼是這樣的語法並不重要(能查清楚當然更好):
我目前的做法是在印象筆記裡每天寫一個「日積月累」,把我能聽得懂看得懂,但是沒說過覺得會有用的表達、字典例句和段落整理在一起。讀上幾遍,把其中的一些背下來,然後有機會就用起來。通過這樣的反覆的記錄、背誦、複習、整理和拓展,積極詞彙越來越多,表達方式越來越地道。並且通過這種方式,我們可以知道自己每天到底學了多少東西,避免產生「我真的很努力啊」這種幻覺。
誠實和踏實是進步的第一步。知道自己真正學了多少,然後進行調整,一步一個腳印。
love竟然還有這個意思
Salmon這個詞怎麼讀
推薦兩本小書,兩小時就可以把每一頁都看完:葛傳槼的《向英語學習者的講話》,Jeremy Webb的《憤怒的英語》,回復關鍵字"215book"即可收到網盤下載地址。