BBC Learning¹ English 

Q and A of the Week 你问我答 

Historic² and historical 两词区别 

  关于台词的备注:  

请注意这不是广播节目的逐字稿件。本文稿可能没有体现录制、编辑过程中对节目做出的改变。 

  請注意：中文文字内容只提供簡體版 

Catherine:   Hello, I’m Catherine  and welcome to Question and Answer of the Week. 

Helping³ me answer your questions today is Feifei . 

Feifei:  大家好，欢迎收听《你问我答》。   

Catherine:   Our question today comes from Way, who has a question about two very 

similar words.  

Feifei:  是的，Way 的问题关于两个看起来很相似而且非常容易搞混的词。咱们来听听他的具

体问题吧。 

Catherine:   Yes, let’s hear the question. 

Question 

I am not sure about the difference between 'historical'  and 'historic '. Could you please 

tell me how to use the two words correctly? Thank you.  

Feifei:  Way 想知道 historic 和 historical  这两个词的区别。首先，这两个词都和历史有

关。 

Catherine:   Yes, absolutely. They are both connected with history, and they are both 

adjectives⁴. We can talk about historic places, and we can talk about 

historical places too. 

Feifei:  Historic 和 historical  都是形容词，而且都有“历史的”意思，那区别到底是什么

呢？ 

Catherine:   OK . Well , historical is a very general word. Any   single  thing, or group of 

things, that are related⁵ to history ,  can be described as historical. Here are 

two people  talking about their travel plans.  

Example  

Man 1 :   We’ll spend the afternoon visiting the historical buildings in the old town. 

Then we’ll have lunch. 

Man 2 :   How long does it take to get there? 

Man 1 :   Nearly 4 hours. Don’t forget to bring something to read.  

Man 2 :   I will  –  I’ve got a couple of historical  novels I want to finish.   

Man 1 :   Oh, historical fiction? I like that too. 

Feifei:  上面的例子里单词 historical  指的是和历史有关的或是历史上出现过的人或事。比如

说，历史建筑 historical buildings, 历史小说 historical fiction.  好，我们再来看一

下单词 historic. 

Catherine:   Right. So while historical is used very generally, the word historic has a 

very specific sense.   We say something is historic when we want to 

emphasise⁶ that it is very special, important, unique or unforgettable in our 

history.  

Feifei:  单词 historic 常用来表示历史上一件难忘的、有名的、重要的、独特的东西。那重大

事件呢？ 

Catherine:   Both! We can talk about historic days, historic meetings, historic places, 

historic moments. Here’s a tour guide  to give us some examples.  

Example  

And here are the steps from which the president made his historic announcement. And 

at the top of the steps,  the historic silver gate  is over 400 years old. It’s  the only one of 

its ki nd that survives today.  

Feifei:  上面例子中提到了一个历史性的公告 a historic  announcement,  还有发表这个公告

的地点一扇历史性的银门 a historic silver gate.  好了，我们来总结一下这两个单词

的使用方法：在使用这两个词的时候，记住:  historic al  来描述一般的历史事件或与历

史有关的东西；用 historic  来形容一个具体的历史事件。 

Catherine:   Yes. Historical  is general, historic is specific. Or you can look at it this way: 

if something is historical, it happened in the past. If som ething is historic, 

it happened in the past and  it’s very important.  

Feifei:  明白了。区分这两个词的最好方法就是记住 historical  描述过去发生的一件事情；用

historic 描述过去发生的、并且非常重要的事件。 

Catherine:   Let’s hope that listening to this programme turns out to be a historic 

moment for our questioner, Way. 

Feifei:  哈哈。今天具有历史意义的一期节目讲解了 historic 和historical  两词的区别。  如

果你在学习中遇到任何问题，欢迎你发邮件告诉我们你的问题，我的邮箱是 

[email protected] .  感谢收听，下次再会。 

Catherine:   Goodbye!