1.Me and Tim, Tim and I
Wrong: Me and Tim are going to a movie tonight.
错误:我和蒂姆今晚要去看电影。
Right: Tim and I are going to a movie tonight.
正确:蒂姆和我今晚要去看电影。
Why?
为何?
If you take Tim out of the sentence, you are the subject. You are going to a movie. When youre going to a movie, what do you say?
假如将Tim从句子中去掉,那样就是你要去看电影。当你筹备去看电影时,你会如何说?
I am going to a movie.
我要去看电影。
You wouldnt say, Me am going to a movie.
你不会说,Me am going to a movie。
When you add Tim, the sentence construction remains the same. Youre simply adding Tim, and its correct to say the other persons name first.
当你加上Tim,句子结构也还是一样的。你只不过多加了Tim一个人而已,将他们的名字放在前面是正确的。
Tim and I are going to a movie.
蒂姆和我今晚要去看电影。
Your test is always to take the other person out of the sentence, decide on I or me, and then put the other person back in.
你只须将另一个人先从句子中去除,决定是用是I还是me,然后将之前的人加入即可。
2.We Was, We Were
Am, are, was, and were are all parts of the powerful little verb, to be.
Am, are, was, and were都是简短但大有用途的be动词。
What trips people up with this mighty little verb is present tense and past tense. If something is happening now, its present tense. If it already happened, its past tense.
面对这种简短而有用途的动词,到底是用目前时还是过去时会使大家犯难。假如表示的是目前发生的事,就用目前时。假如事情已经发生了,就用过去时。
Singular and plural also becomes a problem. Compare the following:
单复数也是一个问题。比较下面的句子:
We are going to a movie.
大家要去看电影。
I am going to a movie.
我要去看电影。
We were going to a movie.
大家过去去看过电影。
I was going to a movie.
我那时筹备去看电影。
Can you hear the difference?
你能看出它们的不同吗?
It is never correct to say, We was...
We was的说法是不对的。
Why? Because we is plural. We always were...
为何?由于we是复数形式的,后面应该接were。
Variation on this problem:
察看这种问题的变化:
I see. I saw. I have seen.
Never: I seen.
3.Had Ran, Had Run
I heard this on the scanner in the newsroom one day: He had ran into the woods by the time I got there.
有一天,我在新闻编辑室的扫描仪上看到一句话:我一到那儿,他就钻进了森林。
Wrong.
错误
正确:
He had run into the woods by the time I got there.
This is a problem of not understanding the perfect tense.
这是对完成时态的误解。
Its confusing, no doubt.
无疑,完成时态确实会叫人摸不着头脑。
4.She Dont, She Done
This is a problem of conjugating the verb, to do.
这是动词不定式to do使用方法的错误。
Wrong: She dont know what shes talking about.
错误:她不了解自己在怎么说。
Right: She doesnt know what shes talking about.
正确:她不了解自己在怎么说。
Wrong: Everyone knows she done it.
错误:每一个人都了解她的所作所为。
Right: Everyone knows she did it.
正确:每一个人都了解她的所作所为。
5.Its Broke, Its Broken
Were not talking finances here. Well, fixing whatever is broken might involve finances, but thats another matter altogether.
大家并非在这里讨论成本的问题。将毁坏的东西修好确实需要资金,但这是题外话。
I hear people say, Its broke, when they mean, Its broken.
我发现,当大家想表达某物坏掉的意思时,他们会说Its broke.
This problem has to do with the part of speech called past participles. Listen:
这个问题就涉及到就是过去分词的词性问题。请听以下表达:
It breaks.
它坏了。
It broke.
It has broken. 或: It is broken.它已经坏了。
错误: It is broke.