英語(yǔ)詞匯學(xué)習(xí)的4大常錯(cuò)詞
1. Irony
What you think it means: Something that is funny。你認(rèn)為單詞的含義是：滑稽的事。
What it really means: Contrary to what you are expecting。單詞的真正含義是：事與愿違的。
This is a famous one because so many people get this wrong so often. It’s also kind of hard to explain, so we’ll use an example. The Titanic was boasted about as being 100% unsinkable and then in 1912 it was sunk anyway. That is what is called cosmic irony. When a starving vegetarian eats a pepperoni pizza, that is what is called situational irony。這是一個(gè)典型的單詞，因?yàn)榻?jīng)常有人用錯(cuò)。解釋起來(lái)可能有點(diǎn)困難，所以我們還是舉例說(shuō)明吧。泰坦尼克號(hào)號(hào)稱(chēng)100%不會(huì)沉沒(méi)，但1912年它還是意外沉沒(méi)了，這就叫“宇宙反諷”。要是某個(gè)餓得不行的素食者忍不住吃了塊香腸披薩，那就叫“情境反諷”。
There are other kinds too, such as dramatic irony and Socratic irony. Believe it or not, sarcasm
is actually irony. When you say something sarcastically, your tone and your words mean two opposite things. That is ironic. Irony can be funny but not everything funny is irony。當(dāng)然還有其他分類(lèi)，比如“喜劇式反諷”和“蘇格拉底式反諷”。不管你信不信，irony其實(shí)和sarcasm(諷刺)是一個(gè)意思。當(dāng)說(shuō)到某件事很諷刺時(shí)，你的語(yǔ)調(diào)和用詞意在表達(dá)完全相反的兩種情況。這就是ironic(反諷)。反諷可以是滑稽的，但并不是所有滑稽的事都可以稱(chēng)得上“反諷”。
2. Travesty
What you think it means: A tragedy or something unfortunate。你認(rèn)為單詞的含義是：悲劇或不幸的事。
What it really means: A mockery or parody。單詞的真正含義是：拙劣的模仿或惡搞。
This is another one that people have wrong fairly frequently. You’ve heard people call 9/11 a travesty. Truth be told 9/11 was a tragedy. A travesty is actually a mockery or a parody. One might say that a Weird Al Yankovic album is a travesty. With how often this word is associated with tragedy, we wouldn’t be shocked if that definition were eventually added as an acceptable meaning. Until then, it doesn’t mean anything bad happened。
這也是人們經(jīng)常用錯(cuò)的一個(gè)單詞。有人把9.11事件說(shuō)成travesty，其實(shí)他是想說(shuō)是個(gè)tragedy(悲劇)。Travesty其實(shí)是指拙劣的模仿或惡搞。你可以說(shuō)艾爾?揚(yáng)科維奇的專(zhuān)輯是travesty(惡搞的)。鑒于travesty這個(gè)單詞總是被人們和tragedy(悲劇)搞混淆，或許以后travesty里面也能加入“悲劇”的含義吧。不過(guò)到目前為止，這個(gè)單詞跟“不好的.事情”完全扯不上關(guān)系。
3. Ultimate
What you think it means: The one, the only. The best。你認(rèn)為單詞的含義是：某個(gè)，唯一的，最好的。
What it really means: The last item of a list。單詞的真正含義是：列表中的最后一項(xiàng)。
Some people do actually use this one properly. You may see someone list off a bunch of things and hear them say, “Okay, at the store we need eggs, milk, juice, and ultimately, butter。” That is actually the proper use of ultimate. There is no other context or added context. It simply means the last one。確實(shí)也有人能夠正確使用這個(gè)單詞。你或許看到過(guò)別人寫(xiě)出一串列單，然后聽(tīng)到他們說(shuō)：“嗯……我們要去商店買(mǎi)點(diǎn)雞蛋、牛奶、果汁，最后(ultimately)還有黃油。”這才是ultimate的正確使用方法。這里不存在其他內(nèi)容或補(bǔ)充內(nèi)容，ultimate就表示“最后一個(gè)”。
4. Conversate
What you think it means: To have a conversation。你認(rèn)為單詞的含義是：進(jìn)行交談。
What it really means: Nothing。單詞的真正含義是：壓根沒(méi)有這個(gè)詞。
Conversate actually doesn’t exist and I’ll prove it to you. Go into a program that underlines words with red if they’re spelled wrong. Now type out conversate. Did you see the red line? Conversate was meant to be a mixture of conversation and converse and be used as a verb. However, converse is a verb and there really isn’t a need for a second verb to describe the same action.Conversate這個(gè)單詞其實(shí)是不存在的，這我可以證明。找個(gè)能標(biāo)紅錯(cuò)誤拼寫(xiě)的程序，然后輸入conversate這個(gè)單詞，你應(yīng)該能看到這個(gè)單詞被標(biāo)了紅色下劃線吧？conversate應(yīng)該是conversation(交談)和converse(交談)的混合詞，詞性是動(dòng)詞。可是，converse(交談)本身就是動(dòng)詞，根本就沒(méi)必要再造一個(gè)動(dòng)詞來(lái)描述同一個(gè)行為了。
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