不要写suggest somebody to do something
100词口语社群里面有同学提到了一个问题:应该说suggest somebody do something,还是说suggest somebody to do something,或者suggest somebody doing something?
这里正确答案是suggest somebody do something。Suggest是写作中极其常用的词,但是很多同学都把这个词用错了,实际上单词并不简单,使用的时候有不少注意事项。
要表达“建议某人做某事”,不能说suggest somebody to do something或者suggest somebody doing something,那么应该怎么说呢?《朗文词典》指出,如果是在日常口语等非正式场合,可以说suggest that somebody does something,比如:I suggest that she waits a few weeks.
如果是在更加正式一点的场合中,可以说:suggest that somebody should do something,比如刚才的例句在正式场合中可以写成:I suggest that she should wait a few weeks.
注意上面的句式中that和should也可以省略,写成:suggest (that) somebody (should) do something,比如《朗文词典》里面有这样的例句:I suggest you call him first. 句子相当于:I suggest that you should call him first.
对于suggest somebody do something这一结构,即使是用过去时,do something仍然要用原形,比如:I suggested that she wait a few weeks.
此外,单词还存在下面几个搭配:
(1) suggest doing something,比如:The government suggested constructing another railway link to the mainland.
(2) suggest something,比如:He suggested several different ways of dealing with the problem.
(3) suggest to somebody that they (should) do something,比如:We suggested to the committee that they review the case again.
注意,suggest除了表示“建议”之外,还可以表示“显示,表示”,此时单词意思类似于indicate,比如《经济学人》在报道芯片行业的文章中有这样的句子:
AMD is more important to the chip business than its diminutive stature suggests. It provides the only meaningful competition to not one but two Goliaths in two important parts of the semiconductor industry.
句子意思相当于:AMD对芯片行业的重要性比其弱小的企业规模所揭示的要大。它为半导体行业两个重要领域中的两大巨头带来了唯一有意义的竞争。
我们也可以用XX is more…than…suggest来表示“某事物比……所揭示的要更……,比如《卫报》在报道男女同工不同酬现象时用了这么一个标题:Gender pay gap is even worse than the figures suggest(性别薪酬差距比数据显示的更大)
在考场写作中可以说:The financial crisis is more serious than government statistics suggest. It has led to a series of social problems, including mass unemployment and high crime rates.
推荐阅读
微信扫码关注该文公众号作者