英语写作中不能容忍的几种语法错误

人们常常说，汉语是意合语言，而英语是形合语言。这是什么意思呢？其实很简单，汉语是靠意义、靠感觉来搭建的语言，而英语是靠形式、靠语法规范来搭建的语言。这种差异就决定了汉语和英语在句子写作中有如下三个主要差异：

壹：汉语没有词形变化，而英语有词形变化。

相信英语初学者都曾对英语动词的时态变化心有余悸，同样一个动词，用于一般现在时、过去时、将来时等时，其形态就要发生变化，而汉语会永远用同一个形态。比如，我每天去上学/我昨天去上学/我明天去上学中，汉语都是“去上学”，可英语就要分别对应go to school; went to school; will go to school三种不同形态。

[误] Riding bicycles had more advantages than taking a bus.

[改] Riding bicycles has more advantages than taking a bus.

[误] In a word, if we have no TV, we may lose something which bring us happy.

[改] In a word, if we had no TV, we might lose something which brings us happiness.

贰：汉语句法可以比较随意，而英语句法通常比较严格。

一个完整的英语句子，必须有主语、谓语这两个基本成分，否则就会被称为残缺句(broken sentences)，而汉语则主要依靠感觉，对主语谓语的结构要求没有那么高。比如：“保护环境，一定要提高意识”，读到这个句子，我们中国人会觉得语法没有什么问题，我们也不会去追问，到底是谁“一定要提高意识”，我们凭感觉就知道说话者到底在说谁，因此不必明确出来。但英语就不一样，如果你将那句汉语直接翻译为“protect environment, must promote awareness”, 那一定会被认为是严重的语法错误。那么，到底怎么翻译这句呢？其实，人们经常说汉语是一门隐晦的语言也好，诗性的语言也好，其原因就在这里：明明 “保护环境”表示就是目的，也就是“为了保护环境”，但我们就是不用“为了”这个连接词，让你去猜，猜，猜！明明“一定要提高意识”肯定是指“我们”或“你们”，甚至“我们大家”，但也不明确说出来，让你去猜，猜，猜！因此，任何一个汉语句子，我们都可以做出多种不同的解释，就是由于汉语内在的这种隐晦性或者诗性所决定的。如果把上面那句翻译成英语，就需要明确出“为了保护环境”，就需要明确出“谁一定要提高意识”，这样一来，英语就把汉语的很多可能性变成了只有一种确定的可能了（比如：In order to protect environment, we must promote our awareness.）

[误] With the Chinese economy developing, cars entering families in China is more and more usualness.

[改] As China’s economy develops, there will be more and more cars entering families in China.

Or: As China’s economy develops, it will become more and more common for cars to enter families in China.

[误] China develops very fast which could supply so many chances of jobs for people that a few of people have several jobs at the same time, and they must improve their efficiency including walking in the road.

[改] As China develops rapidly, so many new job opportunities are opened up that some people can take several jobs at the same time, which makes it necessary for them to minimize their travel hours.

[误] But the science and technology also is a two-edge sword, if uses unsuitably will bring the suffering of destruction to people.

[改] But science and technology is also a double-edged sword, which might be destructive to human being if used improperly.

叁：汉语可以用流水句，英语不可以。

汉语中，两个独立句子只要有关系，就可以用逗号连接，且不需要任何表示两句关系的连接词，而在英语中，这两个句子若用逗号连接，就必须有表示两句关系的连接词，否则必须用句号，若既无连接词，又用逗号连接，就构成了不符合英语语法规范的“流水句”。中国学生由于受到汉语影响，“流水句”问题屡见不鲜，屡教不改，是英语教师比较头痛的难题。比如中国学生作文中常见的一句：We should work together to fight air pollution, this is very important (我们必须团结起来与空气污染作斗争，这一点非常重要）。这样的英语就是受到汉语意合语法的影响，两个独立的句子用逗号相连，而且没有连接词。怎么修改呢？很简单，就是把它们分开成两句，或者把其中一句变成从属句，即：We should work together to fight air pollution. This is very important. 或者：We should work together to fight air pollution, which is very important. 或者：It is very important that we work together to fight air pollution.

[误] As China entered WTO, the cost of a car is decreasing in these years, many families could buy and use a family car.

[改] As China has become a member of WTO, the cost of a car is keeping lowering down in recent years so that many families could afford a private car.

[误] Health is the most important factor in our lives, we can lose money and authority, but we can’t lose health.

[改] Health is the most important factor in our life. We can lose money and power, but we can not lose health.

来源：北京新向标英语