讀中一時，英文老師說，想表達「擁有」這個概念，可以用 '(s)，例如 my grandfather's clock (祖父的鐘)、Miss Jones' watch (鍾斯小姐的手錶)。
不過，最近外藉同事替栗訂正稿件時，她寫了 eight hours sleep (八小時的睡眠) 這個片語出來。噫，hours 後面，不是該有一撇 (') 的嗎？
本以為同事忙中有錯，但看書時，栗發現有些 (自以為) 該有 '(s) 的地方，那一撇又真的不見了，例如：Gold retarded a government response to the crisis (黃金令政府不能及時處理危機)。換了是栗，一定寫 a government's response。
到底是甚麼一回事呢？
Can't speak for the Brits, but Americans are notorious in 慳番 the apostrophe, especially after the "s".
回覆刪除In the statement in the book, "government" functions as an adjective, which is always singular when using a noun form.
So, it should either be "eight hours' sleep" or "eight-hour sleep".
[版主回覆01/25/2010 13:04:00]Thanks very much for the explanation, Teacher!
I suspected that 'government' is used as an adj. in the sentence, but I can still write 'a government's response'? Or is it redundant?
thanks chestnut girl t, thanks teacher.
回覆刪除No, it's not redundant, just a different expression. Both are correct, though government response is more common. A purist, however, would say that government's response is correct, and government response should really be governmental response. I wouldn't get caught dead using the latter.
回覆刪除[版主回覆02/01/2010 21:31:00]Thanks again, Teacher
Wow, I haven't seen the word 'governmental' for ages. And there are still people who believe that we should write/say 'governmental response'?
外國人用英文會偷懶，就像我們用中文一樣，有得簡化便簡化。英文的通俗用法要靠看書報雜誌及電影電視來學。 btw, 以前不明白為何電影Edward Scissorhands裡的scissor不是用眾數scissors呢！
回覆刪除[版主回覆02/01/2010 21:37:00]芝提到的問題，我想是因為 scissor 作形容詞用，所以才不加 s 吧？
我倒是想起，從前說糖果店，我會說 sweet shop，但後來不知聽誰說，sweet 該加 s ，以免變成甜的商店。早陣子問外藉同事，他又說不用加 s ，唉，有 s 沒 s 真讓栗頭痕
On informal email, not every sentence has to be perfect. Just like 加油. As long as people understand what you try to say is good enough. The sms or text msg of the 九十後. have shorten everything. And they can still carry on a conversion. It is good to know the popular form but don't need to use it all the time.
回覆刪除[版主回覆02/01/2010 21:46:00]堅: This afternoon I came across a phrase 'feel like something to eat'. I was sure that the phrase was wrong and it should be 'feel like having something to eat'. However, it turned out that the former phrase is correct. It may not be a good example, but when you mentioned sms and text msg, I recalled all those horrible contractions and omissions and I'm not sure whether I can communicate with anyone using that particular kind of language ...
Inflexibility only make us out of touch. Children are the future, you don't want to not be able to communicate with them and guide them along. Nothing is perfect in this world. Even a perfectly constructed sentence can be misunderstood. Language is context sensitive. Without the same context, it will have different meaning. Language itself is not perfect, it can't really communicated our really feeling and emotion. Don't try to be perfect it is not worth it.
回覆刪除[版主回覆02/02/2010 22:24:00]處女座的女生多愛追求完美，栗子妹也不例外。畢業後出來社會做了幾年事，才知道追求完美這種想法要不得，這些年都改了很多啦。
上下文確實重要，若一開始的設想錯了，任你再努力，依然會出現雞同鴨講的情況，我對此可是有豐富經驗呢！