許多學(xué)生經(jīng)常混淆 elder/eldest 和 older/oldest的用法。
兩組詞匯含義完全相同,都表示年齡更大或最大,但在用法上卻存在如下區(qū)別:
- elder/eldest 只能放在名詞前面,不能放在be動詞后面。
- older/oldest既可以放在名詞前面,也可以放在be動詞后面。
elder/eldest
elder/eldest放在名詞前面,用于表示家庭關(guān)系里年長的。
例如:
- She is my elder sister. 她是我的姐姐。
- She is now the eldest member of the family. 她是家里最年長的人。
- 錯誤的用法:
She is my sister. She iselder.
當(dāng)然,elder/eldest 還可以用作名詞。例如:
- He is the eldest of four brothers. 他是我們四個兄弟中最年長的。
older/oldest = elder/eldest
older/oldest也可以放在名詞前,表示家庭關(guān)系里年長的。也可以用作名詞。此時,older/oldest與elder/eldest 用法完全相同。
例如:
- My older(=elder) sister is coming to stay with us at the weekend.
- Matt is the oldest (=eldest) of our children and Simon is the youngest.
older/oldest ≠ elder/eldest
older/oldest 還可表示一般意義上事物的年齡,此時只能使用older/oldest,而不能使用elder/eldest
例如:
- It is by far the oldest building in the whole region. 這是這個地區(qū)最古老的建筑。
- 錯誤的用法:
The town hall is by farthe eldest building…
此外,older/oldest 還可以放在be動詞后面,而elder/eldest則不可以。
例如:
- I think her grandfather must be older than her grandmother. 他爺爺比奶媽年紀(jì)大
- 錯誤的用法:
I think her grandfather mustbe elderthan …