英语单词大师：Errors in English

 AA:   I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: Common Errors in English, from a professor who wrote the book.

RS:   Paul Brians began with a Web site. It got so popular, it led to a book called Common Errors in English Usage. Now there's a calendar of errors for every day of the year, for 2006.

AA:   This week he started his 38th year of teaching at Washington State University, in the Pacific Northwest. We asked Professor Brians to name some of the errors he expects to hear on campus.

PAUL BRIANS: One that is extremely common now, and it is so common now that I could be fighting a losing battle, is the expression 'could care less.' People say 'I could care less' when they mean 'I couldn't care less.' And the original expression is highly ironic¹. It's a sarcastic² saying. 'You know what? I care so little about this, I could not possibly care any less than I do.'

But people who don't understand what's being said think, 'Oh, I mean this ironically, so I'm going to say I could care less.' And, doing so, they think they're making something neutral into something ironic. But really they're making them sound like they don't know the original expression.

RS: So how do you react when your son or daughter or student says 'I could care less about that'?

PAUL BRIANS: I don't usually say anything. I don't go around correcting people unless they ask me to. I think my job is not to tell people this is absolutely right or this is absolutely wrong, but [to tell them] some people will disapprove³ or think less of you if you say it this way. And that's just information, and then you do with the information what you want. If you still feel more comfortable saying 'could care less,' then go ahead.

AA: Then you could -- couldn't care less if they continue to say 'could care less.' So what's another really common error in English.

PAUL BRIANS: Well, here's another sort of parallel one that's turned up a lot in speech lately. Young people particularly have begun to say 'at all' in very inappropriate ways. You hear it most often from grocery-store checkout⁴ clerks. They'll say 'Do you want any help out with that at all?' Well, 'at all' has been traditionally used to offer minimal⁵ help, to stress that you don't need much, you're not really offering very much.

RS: So use it in a sentence --AA: Correctly.

RS: -- correctly.

PAUL BRIANS: Usually it would be something like 'Can't you give me any help at all? But when you use 'at all' when you're offering help, it makes you sound stingy or lazy. And so it's right up there with saying 'no problem' instead of 'you're welcome' when somebody thanks you for something. That's not an error, but it's not traditional and sounds less polite to people who aren't used to it.

RS: Isn't this more a question -- let me rephrase that, is this a question of the language evolving?

PAUL BRIANS: Yes, but the problem is that as it evolves, you get caught as a user between people who are going with the new pattern and those who know the old pattern and are comfortable with it. And those people are often interviewers for jobs. They're often ...

AA: The professor.

PAUL BRIANS: The professor who's going to grade your paper. There may be a date that you want to impress. So it's good to know that there are people that are bothered by some of these things. Another one that's become very popular is 'build off of.' And this one is used by very well-educated people, too.

The traditional expression is to 'build on': 'Let's build on our strengths and do something ... ' 'Build off of' doesn't have the same metaphor⁶ of creating a tall structure. Instead, it's sort of a ramshackle adding-on to the side of it. Another one similar is 'center around.' Now there are some of the --AA: Oh yeah! Which one is it , center around?

PAUL BRIANS: It's center on!

AA: Center on, right!

PAUL BRIANS: If you center on something, if it's centered, you're on it. You revolve⁷ around something.

RS: You can't center around something.

PAUL BRIANS: So people are mixing up the two expressions and they've mashed⁸ the two together into 'center around.' Now that one has become so common that some usage guides are now saying they accept it. But, again, if you're working with an editor or a teacher or somebody who really cares about language, they're going to raise their eyebrows⁹ at it.

AA:   So now let's center on what Paul Brians calls the single most common error. PAUL BRIANS: I-t-apostrophe-s and i-t-s. 'It is' is abbreviated¹¹ as it's, and that's the only time there should be an apostrophe in its.

AA:  That, and when you want to abbreviate¹⁰ it has -- it's also i-t-apostrophe-s. Paul Brians is an English professor at Washington State University in Pullman, and author of Common Errors in English Usage. He has a free version online at wsu.edu. You can click on a direct link at voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is [email protected].  With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti.

1 ironic   

adj.讽刺的，有讽刺意味的，出乎意料的

参考例句：

• That is a summary and ironic end.那是一个具有概括性和讽刺意味的结局。
• People used to call me Mr Popularity at high school,but they were being ironic.人们中学时常把我称作“万人迷先生”，但他们是在挖苦我。

2 sarcastic   

adj.讥讽的，讽刺的，嘲弄的

参考例句：

• I squashed him with a sarcastic remark.我说了一句讽刺的话把他给镇住了。
• She poked fun at people's shortcomings with sarcastic remarks.她冷嘲热讽地拿别人的缺点开玩笑。

3 disapprove   

v.不赞成，不同意，不批准

参考例句：

• I quite disapprove of his behaviour.我很不赞同他的行为。
• She wants to train for the theatre but her parents disapprove.她想训练自己做戏剧演员，但她的父母不赞成。

4 checkout   

n.（超市等）收银台，付款处

参考例句：

• Could you pay at the checkout.你能在结帐处付款吗。
• A man was wheeling his shopping trolley to the checkout.一个男人正推着购物车向付款台走去。

5 minimal   

adj.尽可能少的，最小的

参考例句：

• They referred to this kind of art as minimal art.他们把这种艺术叫微型艺术。
• I stayed with friends, so my expenses were minimal.我住在朋友家，所以我的花费很小。

6 metaphor   

n.隐喻，暗喻

参考例句：

• Using metaphor,we say that computers have senses and a memory.打个比方，我们可以说计算机有感觉和记忆力。
• In poetry the rose is often a metaphor for love.玫瑰在诗中通常作为爱的象征。

7 revolve   

vi.(使)旋转；循环出现

参考例句：

• The planets revolve around the sun.行星绕着太阳运转。
• The wheels began to revolve slowly.车轮开始慢慢转动。

8 mashed   

a.捣烂的

参考例句：

• two scoops of mashed potato 两勺土豆泥
• Just one scoop of mashed potato for me, please. 请给我盛一勺土豆泥。

9 eyebrows   

眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Eyebrows stop sweat from coming down into the eyes. 眉毛挡住汗水使其不能流进眼睛。
• His eyebrows project noticeably. 他的眉毛特别突出。

10 abbreviate   

v.缩写，使...简略，缩短

参考例句：

• She had lost the power to abbreviate the remaining steps of the way.她丧失了缩短这最后几步路的能力。
• It is seldom acceptable to abbreviate words in formal writing.在正式的书面语中使用缩写语通常是不能接受的。

11 abbreviated   

adj. 简短的，省略的 动词abbreviate的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He abbreviated so much that it was hard to understand his article. 他的文章缩写词使用太多，令人费解。
• The United States of America is commonly abbreviated to U.S.A.. 美利坚合众国常被缩略为U.S.A.。