BestBanana English

Category: English Class Now!
  • 髒話的演進:fxxk => effing => freak/frig, shit => crap => poo => crud, god damn it => dang it, hell => heck

    effing 其實就是 Fxxking,中文可以說是「該死的、他媽的」意思。而 freak 的意思是「怪物;怪人」,發音與 fxxk 類似,語氣較 effing 更溫和一點,可以用來借位表達。同理,有時候要強調,我們會使用 fxxking ,這時也可以用 freaking 來取代,例如:Here is freaking cold! 最後,k 的因也弱化之後,就變成了 => frigging (原意是幹蠢事,例如:Stop frigging about!)

    (more…)
  • Risk 的用法:at the risk of, at risk of, at risk from

    注意!Subtle Difference 爭議多,僅供高階英語學習者利用,也歡迎留言指出可能的錯誤。

    at the risk of 最常聽到此用法,通常會接可能發生的狀況(不一定是危險):At the risk of sounding like a pedant, I think the comma should be used in these cases.

    (more…)
  • Opening Adjective 形容詞開頭

    一般來說,句首會放「副詞」來修飾整句,然而筆者最近讀的原文書及某本小說大量出現「形容詞」開頭的句子(口語很少看到)。舉例來說:「Well aware of the danger, he picked up the pace....」。以前高中文法沒學過這種東西,Google 了一會兒,似乎也沒有什麼答案,大型的文法網站亦沒提到。內文收錄我看到的各式資料:

    (more…)
  • in order to, on an eye to, for the sake of, due to concerns over, in an effort/attempt to, in support of, in hopes of, in the hope that, in pursuit of, in an effort to「為了」的英文用法

    in order to 為了…
    on an eye to為了…
    for the sake of 為了…(接名詞
    due to concerns over 基於對…考量、關心(concern本身是「憂慮」或者「重要的事」
    due to sth concerns 基於 …考量、關心
    in an effort to 為了努力使…
    in an attempt to 為了嘗試去…
    in support of 為了支持
  • 英語描述「因為&結論&因此&結果」

    本文簡介「because, since/as, owing to, due to, thanks to, by virtue of, therefore, thus, summary, conclusion, so, so that, so as to, if so, as such, this/that way, in that case, on that note, at this rate, by/in doing so, Now then, ergo, in essence, basically, takeaway, in brief/in short, simply put, in a nutshell, all in all, all things considered, to sum up, in conclusion, in the end, at the end of the day, so again, then again」。當我們在論述概念時,需要利用一堆因果的串連字,最後還要附個總結。這些字有時是放在小段落裡,有時在整篇文章的結尾,有時只是前一兩句話洐生出來的結果,其各自都有使用情境上的細微差異。此外,英語講究盡量別重覆使用同一個英語,應該使用一些替換用字。本文蒐集相關教學影片,加上筆者摘要以及新聞例句供讀者參考。

    當「因為」使用時,As/Since 的理由很明顯,是一種補充語氣的用法。例如 We should head back since/as it's starting to rain. 至於 for 則是用於文學體,會搭配一些文藝的用語。例如 Abigail lowered her head and wept, for she knew her Tom was dead. 正常狀況,就使用 because / because of / owing to / due to 例如 The concert has been cancelled owing to lack of interest. 如果要強調順序,可使用 as a result of / as a consequence of / in the wake of。

    in this/that regard

    in the wake of = 起因於(字面上是說因為…的起床)

    thanks to = by virtue of 注意到 virtue = an advantage or good thing = 優點;好處

    (more…)
  • Especially, particularly, in particular 英文的意思和用法

    especially sth(注意本句插在句中,常用 em-dash 而不是逗號

    (more…)
  • 更好的是,更糟的是,最好的是,最糟的是

    本文蒐集「進一步補充強調」時的英語講法。此用法與一般的 in addition / furthermore 相比,更能表達情緒,戲劇性更高!目前已蒐集用法如下: to top it all, most of all, best of all, worst of all, best yet, worst yet, in the best / worst case scenario, even better / worse, even Adj, better / worse still, to make things (even) better / worse, adding fuel to the fire, add insult to injury, if worst comes to worst

    (more…)
  • Addition -- 增加項目用語

    在寫作或口說測驗中,常常會需要增加論點或說明,此時若不是想做對比(詳見 → 對比用語 ←),那就可以用簡單增加項目的用語:beside / besides, apart from, also, in addition (to), adding that, furthermore, moreover, putting sth aside, as for, as to 此外,口語上則推荐使用 informal 的講法能使對話更為生動:on top of that, plus, not only that

    (more…)
  • 「建議、推荐、提議、忠告」英語的講法

    影片中提到的四個較為正式的建議用法,其中 Suggest = 建議,語氣最弱,供參考之用。Recommend = 推荐,講者自己覺得好。Propose = 提議,較為正式。Advise = 給人忠告。特別注意到,所有建議的字中,只有 advise 字是接「人」,其後則接 on 或 against 來指向事物,此外「人」的部份是可以省略的。本文蒐集大量新聞實例,供讀者熟悉其用法。

    (more…)