Debug專欄

工商時報【湯名潔】 子句讓你的英文 有主角也有配角一個英文句子只能有一個主詞和一個動詞，若想在同一個句子裡放入更多資訊，可以善用子句（clause）。然而句子一旦拉長，錯誤也容易發生。以下5個包含子句的句子，你能否指出錯在哪裡？ Debug 1. They believe that Ben, with his experience and connections, is the best person they know who are able to do this job. 他們相信，以班的經驗和人脈，他是他們所認識的人中，能夠做這項工作的最佳人選。 2. I knew that I have to do something when I received your email to complain that the telephone system has broken down. 當我收到你的信，抱怨電話系統失靈了，就知道自己必須做些什麼。 3. You should want to take a look at the new office, we are here every morning. 你想看看新辦公室的話，我們每天早上都在這裡。 4. I'm afraid that you will lose your job if you won't change your attitude at work. 如果你不改變工作態度，我擔心你會丟了工作。 5. Mary was worried that her son would drive too fast, the road would be too slippery, and that the police would stop the car. 瑪麗擔心她兒子會開得太快、路會太滑、警察會把他的車攔下來。 Debugged 1. They believe that Ben, with his experience and connections, is the best person they know who is able to do this job. 若想著中文「他們所認識的人」，很容易以為應該用複數are。但形容詞子句who is able to do this job是在修飾they know前面遭省略的whom，而whom是在修飾單數的the best person，故be動詞也必須是單數is。 2. I knew that I have to do something when I received your email complaining that the telephone system has broken down. 原句本來是關係子句your email which complained that…，關係子句可以改成分詞片語，即是把which去掉，動詞complain加ing變成現在分詞。 3. Should you want to take a look at the new office, we are here every morning. 這句是以助動詞should開頭的條件子句，should在這裡其實就是if的意思，而語氣上比if更為正式。 4. I'm afraid that you will lose your job if you don't change your attitude at work. if後面跟著的條件子句通常不能用未來式，應該改用一般現在式。 5. Mary was worried that her son would drive too fast, that the road would be too slippery, and that the police would stop the car. 瑪麗的第3個擔心之事「the police would stop the car」前面有that，因此第2個擔心之事「the road would be too slippery」前面也應該有that，才符合寫作法所謂的「平行結構」（parallelism）。 喔，原來這樣講才對！ 「學英文也可以是一場震撼教育。」一個外商公司的總經理到世界公民上完第一次課以後這樣說。 這種震撼是因為以前講錯太多英文，自己完全不知道，已經錯了十幾年。 除掉英文裡的錯，就像擦掉眼鏡上的霧水。邀請您體驗一次英文的震撼教育，請上網www.core-corner.com登記，（臺北）02-27215033、（新竹）03-5782199。