成人英语学习常见动词的错误用法

英语动词是所有词类中最易犯错的一种,许多英语运用上的毛病都和动词有关。有时,连常用的动词都会有用法上的错误。例如有些动词意思相近,其实不尽然。至少,在用法上,会有所差别,如“rise”和“raise”,“stay”和“remain”便是。有些动词,单独用时是一个意思和用法,加上介词时,是另一个意思和用法,如“ see”和“see to”,“search”和“search for ”便是。下面就来详细谈谈。先看这两个句子:① Sam raises very early every morning.② The monitor rises his hand to ask a question.大家知道,raise是个及物动词,意思是“举起”,要有宾语; rise是个不及物动词,意思是“起身”,不可有宾语。这里的①和② 都错;raises和rises必须对换才对。③ He remained in the Holiday Inn.④ The flowers stayed on the branches.英语的remain是“留下来”;stay是“暂住”。显然的,③和④ 是不合逻辑的,remained 和stayed必须互换。⑤ A crook robbed her money.⑥ A few masked men stole a small bank last night.虽然robbed和stole都是及物动词,有自己的宾语,但是它们在这里的用法不当。Steal要跟着被偷的东西,如钱财、珠宝等;rob的宾语是“人”或“处所”。因此,⑤和⑥的robbed和stole要掉转一下。类似的例子还有下面这些:⑦ a. mend b. repair这两个动词都是“修理”;不同的是:简单的工作,用mend;复杂的或需要特别仪器的事项,则用repair,如:⑦a. You can mend the broken part of the page with glue.⑦b. It took some time to repair the road.⑧a. burned b. burnt这两个动词是burn的过去式和过去分词;在句子中的岗位不同,通常有宾语时用“burnt”,没宾语时用“burned”,如:⑧a. The love of freedom burned in our hearts./ The candle has burned brightly for the whole night.⑧b. Who has burnt the paper?/ Jane burnt all the letters from her former boyfriend.至于“动词”和“助动+介词”的误用,我们可以看下面两组例子:⑨ The police searched the suspects in the shopping centre, but nobody was arrested.⑩ I searched for my pocket and found some coins.从语感就知道,⑨和⑩里的searched和searched for是倒置了。 ⑨要的是“寻找”(searched for);⑩要的是“检查”(searched ),两者对换才是。⑾The boy says when he grows, he will be a teacher.⑿Their business grows up rapidly.英语的grow是“发展”;grow up是“长大”。显然的,(11)和(12) 的两个动词又误用了,要对调一下。