外國(guó)人都會(huì)用錯(cuò)的10個(gè)英文單詞

第十位：Refute

“Refute” means to “disprove with evidence” and yetit’s commonly used, even by professional writers,to mean “rebut” which carries a similar meaning butisn’t quite so strong, as it can also mean “argueagainst.” The example here (“Simon Cowell refutes‘scandalous’ claims he helped billionaire hide assetsfrom wife he was divorcing”) is from a recent DailyMail article. For those outside the UK, the Daily Mail isa newspaper which regularly rages against fallingeducational standards. A special mention to Sarah Palin who invented a new word “refudiate”;the usage suggests she meant repudiate.

“Refute”意為“通過(guò)證據(jù)來(lái)反對(duì)”，然而它常被普通人甚至職業(yè)作家當(dāng)作“rebut(反駁)”一詞使用。盡管兩者意思相近，都會(huì)有 “反駁”之意，但“rebut”的語(yǔ)氣不如 “refute”強(qiáng)。有個(gè)例子來(lái)自近期的每日郵報(bào)文章：西蒙•科威爾 “refute駁斥” “丑聞”，聲稱他幫百萬(wàn)富翁私藏財(cái)產(chǎn)，躲過(guò)前妻視線。對(duì)于那些沒(méi)有生活在英國(guó)的人來(lái)說(shuō)，每日郵報(bào)只是個(gè)不定時(shí)抱怨一下教育水平下降的報(bào)紙。值得一提的是，莎拉•佩林創(chuàng)建了新詞匯“refudiate(否認(rèn))”, 用法等同于 “repudiate”，意為“否認(rèn)”。

9、Instant

第九位：Instant

Nowadays, it’s almost universally assumed that “instant” actually means “quickly” or “withoutintervention.” Obviously, it doesn’t. It actually refers to a precise moment in time. GoogleInstant is a good example of this word being abused.

如今，幾乎所有人都認(rèn)為“instant”就是“迅速”或“連續(xù)”的意思，但顯然不是這樣。它事實(shí)上是指在精準(zhǔn)的時(shí)間內(nèi)。谷歌即時(shí)搜索就是一個(gè)濫用該詞的典型例子。

8、Enormity

第八位：Enormity

“Enormity” means “extreme evil”, but it’s often used to mean “enormousness”. US President,George HW Bush missed this one when he said after being elected that he “Couldn’t believe theenormity of the situation.” A perfect example of irony (which, in the context I have just usedit, is correct).

“Enormity”意為“窮兇極惡”，但它卻常用來(lái)指“巨大”之意。美國(guó)前總統(tǒng)，喬治•沃克•布什，曾經(jīng)誤用過(guò)該詞，在就職典禮上，他發(fā)言道“沒(méi)想到任務(wù)如此之大。”這是個(gè)具有諷刺意味的例子。

7、Less

第七位：Less

Less is used when comparing quantities that can’t be counted; for example, “I’d like less milk.”If you’re comparing quantities (like bagels, for example) then “fewer” should be used. But youdon’t win many competitions with a tie break if you point out that “25 words or less” shouldactually be “25 words or fewer.” The antonyms “more than” and “greater than” get similarlymisused. Programmers will know the comparison operators are referred to as “greater thanand less than”; it should really be “greater than and fewer than”.

“Less” 用于形容不可數(shù)名詞，如“我想喝一點(diǎn)牛奶。”如果形容可數(shù)名詞，如百吉餅之類(lèi)，這時(shí)，那就應(yīng)該用 “fewer”。 但如果你比賽平局時(shí)你指出“25字或less(更少)”其實(shí)就是 “25字或fewer(更少)。”這種誤用同樣也出現(xiàn)在反義詞 “more than” 和 “greater than”。程序員知道指代 “greater than and lessthan(比。。。大，比。。。小)”的比較運(yùn)算符實(shí)為 “greater than and fewer than(比。。。大，比。。。小)”。

6、Chronic

第六位：Chronic

Chronic is originally a medical term meaning “long term”; it has the same root as “chronometer”.Someone suffering from chronic pain has long term pain. It’s often used to mean “very bad” –in fact “acute” should be used instead. Despite that, it’s easy to find recent examples: “O’Brien:INM in ‘chronic’ state”.

“Chronic” 原為醫(yī)學(xué)術(shù)語(yǔ)，意指“長(zhǎng)期”，它與 “chronometer精密計(jì)時(shí)器” 含有相同的詞根。如“患慢性病的人，承受著長(zhǎng)期痛苦。”但它卻常被用于形容“嚴(yán)重的”— 事實(shí)上， 應(yīng)該用 “acute”一詞來(lái)替代。除了這個(gè)錯(cuò)用之外，還有其他的事例，如最近的奧伯里恩說(shuō)道“INM 為一種慢性病。

5、Literally

第五位：Literally

This is such a widely known misused word that examples are less common, as most peopleknow to avoid the term – which should be used to describe something that is actuallyhappening (for example, “He literally danced with joy.”) but should not be used for emphasis(“Steam was literally coming out of his ears.”) This example quotes a, now deceased, reverendgentleman who seemed to rejoice in, frankly, daft opinions, including one about a “literalhomosexual steamroller”:

這個(gè)詞被錯(cuò)誤使用的頻率相當(dāng)高，但大多人都選擇詞避而不用，因而錯(cuò)用實(shí)例不多。它本用來(lái)描述正在發(fā)生的某事，如，“他正高興的手舞足蹈”。但是不能被用作強(qiáng)調(diào)，如“蒸汽確實(shí)從他的耳朵里冒出來(lái)。”坦白的說(shuō)，這個(gè)例子形容已故紳士享受“literal homosexual steamroller(“正要撲倒對(duì)方的同性戀”)的愚蠢畫(huà)面。

4、Panacea

第四位：Panacea

“Panacea” means a cure all; it comes from the same Greek root as “panorama”. It shouldn’t beused to imply a cure for a single thing, and yet here is a newspaper saying: “SOUTH AFRICA:Welfare payments – a panacea for poverty?”

“panacea”意指包治百病的靈藥，它與希臘語(yǔ)“panorama全景”含有同一詞根。它不能用來(lái)形容對(duì)單一事物的治療，而有家報(bào)紙上卻說(shuō)“南非：社會(huì)福利——窮人的 “a panacea”一種靈丹?”

3、Disinterested

第三位：Disinterested

Does “disinterested” mean the same as “uninterested”? No. Here’s an example of misuse: “TomTom Disinterested in Windows Phone 7 Too?”. “Disinterested” means that a party isindependent; so a dispute might be settled by a disinterested party. “Uninterested” meansthe party has no interest. “I asked John if he wanted to go to the cricket, but he was completelyuninterested.”

“disinterested”和“uninterested”意思相同嗎?不是。這里有一個(gè)誤用的例子，“湯姆對(duì)微軟視窗系統(tǒng)“disinterested不公正”嗎?” “Disinterested”意指公正;所以紛爭(zhēng)可以通過(guò)公正的人來(lái)解決。而 “uninterested”是指沒(méi)有興趣。如，“我問(wèn)約翰是否想去打板球，但他一點(diǎn)兒也’uninterested不感興趣’。”

2、Decimate

第二位：Decimate

Decimation was a Roman punishment where one in ten men was killed. So when something isdecimated, it implies that ten percent of it is destroyed. “Devastate” is almost certainly a betterword for most usages and yet: “New York City budget will decimate libraries”.

“Decimation”曾用來(lái)形容古羅馬的一項(xiàng)刑罰：十個(gè)人中死一個(gè)。所以當(dāng) “decimate”用于形容一件事情時(shí)，它意味著毀滅了十分之一的程度。“紐約市的預(yù)算將會(huì)毀掉圖書(shū)館”中的“decimate毀掉”一詞用“Devastate”更合適。所以相對(duì)來(lái)說(shuō)，“Devastate”更常用。

1、 Ultimate

1、 第一位：Ultimate

From the Latin, this means the last in a list of items. But it’s so widely used to indicate thebest; a google search for “ultimate phone” gives 307 million hits. I’d argue that the last phonehas yet to be made. This is probably the most misused word on the Internet; type “ultimate”into google and thousands of hits come up, pretty much all of them using it as “the best”.However, for a change, this is the ultimate entry in this list.

在拉丁語(yǔ)中，它用于表示列表中的最后一項(xiàng)，但卻經(jīng)常被用來(lái)形容“最好的”。在谷歌引擎上搜索“ultimatephone最好的電話”的次數(shù)高達(dá)30700萬(wàn)。對(duì)此我堅(jiān)持認(rèn)為是“最后一通電話”。該詞可能是網(wǎng)上誤用最多的單詞了。在谷歌中輸入“ultimate”，會(huì)出現(xiàn)上千個(gè)搜索結(jié)果，但大多數(shù)都把它用作“最好的”。不過(guò)，換個(gè)話題說(shuō)，這的確是本文最后一個(gè)詞目了。