Question:
地道英语中很少用people或person吗?
写作老师以she is a beautiful person为例,指出其中的person是冗余的,这我同意。不过在其他表达人们的句子中,老师也不赞同用people,并说不要让他在我们写的作文中看见people或person。所以说地道英语中表达人们二字都不用people和person?这两个词只用来表达人民或民族?
Answer from Missha:
一、歪果仁真的不这么用?
来看我对《绝望的主妇》第一季台词检索
里面出现了16处people,无一例外全部在表达“人们”,也就是说,这是一个集合名词,不单独表示“某人”:
1 After the funeral, all the residents of Wisteria Lane came to pay their respects.
葬礼之后,所有住在wisteria lane人都来表示他们对我的怀念和尊敬,
2. And as people do in this situation, they brought food.
就像人们在这种情况下通常会做的,他们送来点吃的。
3.-CARLOS: Hey, people are starting to stare. Can you keep your voice down please?
喂,大家都在看,轻点,好么?
-GABRIELLE: (sigh) Absolutely. Wouldn’t want them to think we’re not happy.
(叹息)当然,我可不希望他们认为我们不和。
4.-JULIE: Mom, why would someone kill themselves?
妈妈... 为什么有人要自杀?
-SUSAN: Well, sometimes people are so unhappy they think it’s the only way they can solve their problems.
嗯...因为他们太不快乐了,他们觉得这是他们解决问题的唯一方法.
-SUSAN: Yeah, sometimes people pretend to be one way on the outside and they’re totally different on the inside.
嗯,是的,有时候有些人在外人面前的表现和实际上是完全不一样的。
5.-SUSAN: I mean, of all people, did he have to bang his secretary? I had that woman over for brunch
have: [宾语补足语用过去分词等结构表示]使(在)某方面出现某种状态
我不明白,那么多人,干嘛和他的秘书搞在一起? 大概她的早餐做得比我好。
6.-DANIELLE: Just once, can we have a soup that people have heard of?
just: 只是 hear of: 知道,知道有
只要一次就好,难到我们不能喝点大家都知道的汤?
Like, french onion or navy bean
onion: 洋葱 navy bean: 菜豆
就像法国洋葱或者是菜豆?
7. -EDIE: It’s all gone. Everything my ex-husband’s worked for all those years. Gone.
ex-husband: 前夫
都过去了……我的前夫这些年的辛苦都白费了。
-MRS HUBER: Don’t worry about clothing, I already started a collection from people in the neighbourhood.
好了,别担心衣服了,我已经开始去邻里搜集一些衣服了。
8. -Mary Alice: Paul never likes to have people over but the heck with him I'm doing it.
Paul不喜欢家里有很多人,不过管他呢,我照样要办。
9.People are going to think we didn't care about her.
人们会认为我们不关心她。
-Paul: I doubt people will give it much thought.
我认为人们不会有很多想法
10.Sometimes we even kiss our dog. Ha ha.
even: 甚至
有时候我们甚至会亲吻我们的狗,呵呵。
Sometimes we even kiss people who are just our friends,
有时候我们甚至亲吻我们的朋友。
11.You walked out on your family.
walk out on: 离开,抛弃
你抛下了自己的妻女。
People think you're scum, not me,
scum: 槽粕
人们会认为你是渣子,而不是我。
12. -Mike: You mean people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw soda cans?
people who live in glass houses should not throw stones: 自身有短,勿批他人【这里用soda can与stone一样】
你的意思是处于类似境地的你不应当评论他人?
13. In, college, when we first started dating, people were so jealous of us.
大学里,当我们刚开始约会的时候,人们都在嫉妒我们。
We were the golden couple.
golden: 极好的 couple: 夫妇
我们是极好的一对。
我又检索person 出现了6处 ,其中有5处是personal,一处用到了person。
I don't want to live like that.
我不想那样子生活。
I don't want to be that kind of person,
我不想做那样的人。
其实我们基本可以从上面的用法中得出结论了,person确实不用于汉语中的“你怎么是个这样的人”“你是个好人”这样的用法,而person 用于客观描述,远多于主观印象。
比如:
汉语中的:你这个人啊!不会用person。
但是如果是英文中的新闻报道中很常见,尤其是天灾人祸类的报道:
At least one person died and several others were injured.
至少一人死亡,还有几个人受伤。
二、写作中特别想要去描述的话该怎么办?
1.被动语态
比如在表达“人们常说”的时候,可以用
It is said that
2.使用无灵主语。
用非人称主语表达时,英语往往注重“什么事发生在什么人身上”。而汉语则较常用人称主语表达,侧重“什么人怎么样了”。
无灵主语常见之一 There be 句型
这个句型的意思是“有”,表示“人或事物的存在”或“某地有某物”。
有志者,事竞成。
When there is a will, there is a way.
这两句话的翻译就可见中英文的反差。
在表达“人们常说”的时候,就可以直接用 There is a common belief that….
无灵主语还有一些常见的用法,这些用好之后会给人一种生动地道的印象。
比如在表达“我听说”就可以直接用 Rumor has it that …
再举几个例子:
我从未想过……
不是 I never thought of/that…
而是 It never occurred to me that…
我想不起来那名字了……
不是 I cannot remember that name…
而是 That name escapes me….
3.形容词
他是个好人,不要用good person,直接用kind反而更直观。
4.具体化替代词
可以用girl, woman, guy, man等,另一个重要的词就是one,这个词也长期被同学们忽略。
比如:人们不用花费很大力气就能发现抽烟和癌症之间的密切关系。
One doesn’t have to look far to realize a direct relationship between smoking and cancer.
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