Sentence analysis of writing idiomatic English

Analysis of Sentences in Authentic English

To write beautiful English sentences, of course, we need a strong foundation, but we can read them with certain principles before absorbing them to help us understand them. Here are a few examples, but if you don't know what's good about them, you'll pass them after reading them, which is likely to lead to the more you learn, the more confused you become. After each sentence, I made an analysis and comparison of the thinking process for your reference.

When expressing in English (mainly referring to Chinese-English translation and writing), there is an important link (understood as a trick) that determines whether we can write a relatively flexible and authentic sentence when writing, that is, the choice of subject.

Example: Nothing can bind you.

thinking process: if you use "what" as the subject and add a word "du", you can immediately think of "what" and "anything", so you can choose nothing as the beginning. This is a conventional idea, and the sentences written are almost the same.

If we change our thinking and see what other word can be used as the subject from the Chinese point of view-"you", which is originally the object, but the voice can change in English, so we try to use it as the subject, which naturally means "you are not bound by anything" and the passive voice naturally appears:

You're bound by nothing.

use "everyone" as the subject: in the United States, everyone can buy guns.

use "guns" as the subject: in the United States, guns are available to everyone.

B. You can get this information from the Internet.

use "you" as the subject: you can secure this information on the Internet.

use "information" as the subject: this information is available on the Internet.

C. He suddenly thought of a new idea.

Use "he" as the subject: He suddenly thought out a new idea. Or Suddenly he had a new idea.

Use "idea" as the subject: A new idea Suddenly Occurred to him.

I'll try to change this sentence a little. Replace abruptly with nouns, and replace occur with strike to emphasize the degree of "suddenness": all of a sudden, a new idea struckhim.

Or put all of a sudden in parenthesis according to the characteristics of the sequence of things:

A new idea, All of a sudden, struck him. But the parenthesis of this sentence is slightly longer than the main part before and after, so it is not the best choice. Try to compare the silence of the lake, all of a Sudden, was broken up by a scream.

Let's look at the authentic expressions of several sentences:

1. No one can take ignorance of the law as his own.

thinking process: give up using "who" as the subject and choose other words. Of course, the subjects of some English sentences cannot be obtained directly from Chinese hints, but most of them have reference value and implication. There are several choices of subjects in this sentence: "don't understand", "law", "oneself" and "excuse".

which one is more suitable as the subject? We have to consider the meaning of the sentence. The connotation of this sentence is that some people justify their illegal behavior by not knowing the law, which means that "not knowing the law" has become their magic weapon, and this is the main object of the author's criticism and negation. Therefore, we choose "ignorance of the law" as the subject:

neglect of the law exceptions no man.

2. We must ensure 8 hours of sleep.

thinking process: this is a typical Chinese sentence, that is, there is no obvious subject. Let's try this sentence:

Chinese: It's going to rain. (there is no obvious subject, and the predicate is used to complete the main structure of the sentence directly)

English: It is going to rain. (Add the formal subject it and put the main verb rain behind).

Relatively speaking, except imperative sentences, most (not all) English sentences have subjects, especially in formal styles such as writing.

Since there is no obvious subject in this Chinese sentence, we are faced with two choices in translation: adding the subject according to the meaning, or using the object as the subject.

Obviously, "eight hours sleep" in this sentence can serve as the subject:

Eight hours' sleep must be guaranteed.

3. If you don't do it well, you will lose all your efforts.

thinking process: following the analysis of the previous sentence, since there is no obvious subject, there are two choices: add the subject according to the meaning, or use the object as the subject. The last sentence chooses the latter, that is, the object in Chinese is used as the subject. But this sentence has no obvious object, so we can only adopt the first strategy: add a subject. What will be wasted if it is not done well? Obviously, it is a "thing". If things are not handled well, any work and efforts may be in vain. So we can write:

If things are not properly handled, our labor will be totally lost.

4. He is exhausted and the weather is getting hotter and hotter. So he decided to sit down and rest as soon as he touched the comfortable shade.

thinking process: there is another obvious difference between Chinese and English: a Chinese sentence can have two or more sets of subject-predicate structures, in short, a Chinese sentence may have two different subjects and two different predicates (for example, this sentence: he is exhausted and the weather is getting hotter and hotter); However, a sentence in English can only have one subject-predicate structure (generally speaking, because there are exceptions, so I won't discuss it here), otherwise it must be separated by periods or connected by conjunctions.

Look at a few sentences:

He wants to be a teacher, his father does n't agree. (Error)

He wants to be a teacher, But his father doesn't agree. (correct)

He wants to be a teacher, and his father totally agrees. (correct)

He wants to be a teacher, Which his father doesn't agree. (Correct)

He wants to be a teacher. His father doesn't agree. (Correct)

Therefore, when translating this sentence, we must consider the problem of two sets of subject-predicate components in the first sentence. We can choose to express several clauses together. Then, we choose the subject: give up "he" and "weather" and adopt the main contents of the sentence "fatigue" and "heat" In addition, because of "fatigue and heat", he "decided" to rest as soon as he touched the shade. Therefore, two independent sentences can also be combined:

his weariness and the increasing heat determined him to sit down.

Note: increasing means "more and more" and the first satisfying shade means "as soon as you touch a comfortable shade". Of course, there are other options, and everyone can handle them as appropriate.

5. By the time the East dawned, he had already walked a long way. The riding trip was very pleasant and there were no accidents.

thinking process: the most difficult thing to translate this sentence is the first sentence. It is difficult to say it because you can think of many words to express "the east wants to know", but it is difficult to combine the upper and lower sentences. Of course, we can be sure that we should give up using "he" as the subject first and consider using "the east wants to know". In fact, in other words, it is related to "dawn". We can imagine the scene of the sentence: when the east is about to dawn, he has already walked a long way. That is to say, when he went out, it was still not bright. When he was walking on the road, the dawn came late, that is, he met dawn on the road. So we can try to write:

dawn met him well along the way. It was a pleasant eventful ride.