英文写作手册中文翻译(20)

speakers. Foreign learners of English often have difficulty in telling what is not idiomatic from what is, because they have not been brought up in the language, and also because they are likely to use English words in the way they use words of their mother tongue. Word-for-word translation from Chinese into English generally results in unidiomatic expressions. That is something we should be on guard against.

习惯表达是那些以英语为母语人士的习惯性用法。外国英语学习者经常在表达方面遇到困难，从什么符合到什么不符合语言习惯，因为他们不曾在这种语言中成长，也因为他们对自己母语词汇的用法可能阻碍其对英语词汇的运用。逐字汉译英通常会导致不合习惯的表达，这是我们应该警惕的。

Take for instance the Chinese expression meiyou guilv. If literally translated, the English equivalent might be “to have no law” But this phrase would be very unidiomatic if it is used to describe a person’s daily life or habits, though the above Chinese expression can be used. Instead, the word regular is much better:“ he does not live a regular life;” or “he is not a man of regular habits.”

以中文表达没有规律为例。如果照字面意思翻译，相应的英文或许为“to have no law”。但如果这个短语被用来形容一个人的日常生活或习惯，可能很不地道，尽管上述表达在汉语中是