successful story vs. success story

Taiwan success story的意思是台灣成功的故事， 說明台灣是如何成功的。

Taiwan successful story的意思是有一個台灣的故事，它的內容精彩，情節動人，寫作技巧精湛，可說是一篇非常成功的故事。

例如: It is our teacher’s success story which he often tells us.

例如: It is a successful story which our teacher wrote years ago.

out of the question vs. out of question

out of the question=impossible(不可能的)

Example: Their trip is out of the question: they have no money.

out of question---without any doubt, without question(無疑地)，

現在己不用這個片語，而用without question 取代。

John is, without question, one of the best students in my class.

rainy season vs. raining season

rainy season是正確的，raining season 是錯誤的。
　英文語法中的分詞(participle)跟動名詞(gerund)都是在原形動詞後加 ”ing”。只有在
　它們後面加一個名詞時，方能確定何者為分詞何者為動名詞。
例如：
sleeping baby(睡覺中的嬰兒)中的sleeping是分詞。
= a baby that is sleeping. 分詞的主要功能是形容詞 。
sleeping car(臥車)中的 sleeping是動名詞。
=a car for sleeping. 動名詞的主要功能是名詞 。
但在 sleeping car 中作形容詞用。

raining season 是錯誤的，它不等於 a season for raining,
因為人力不能將一個季節指定為雨季。但是
fasting month(齋戒月) = a month for fasting 是對的，因
為人力可以將一個月份指定為齋戒月。其他如
sleeping bag = bag for sleeping,
drinking water = water for drinking,
walking stick = stick for walking,
spendingmoney = money for spending,
running shoes = shoes for running,
hunting accident=accident in hunting,
都是動名詞作形容詞用。

day and night vs. night and day

day and night是口語，非正式英文(informal English);
night and day是文語，正式英文 (formal English)。

正如中文中有「夜以繼日」(night and day) 及
「日以繼夜」(day and night)一樣。「夜以繼日」是成
語，而「日以繼夜」是誤用。後來以訛傳訛，而成了
我們平日脫口而出的「日以繼夜」

eat one’s words vs. break one’s words

eat one’s words 失言，為說錯話而道歉，承認自己的錯誤

例如：He ate his words at the meeting twice.

break one’s words 食言

例如：He never breaks his words. 他從不食言，他從不爽約。

ago vs. before

ago 是現在的過去多久時間before是過去的過去多久時間。

例如：He transferred to another university two years ago.
transferred是過去式，是從說這句話時推算two years ago.
He told me that he had transferred to another university two years before.
told是過去式，had transferred是過去裡的過去(past in the past)，
因為它發生在過去式told之前，此時時態要用過去完成式，並用before,
否則他可能是兩年前或三年前告訴(told)我，加兩年或三年便是四年或
五年了，而非兩年前。

此外，在直接句改為間直接句時，如直接句中有 ago，間直接句中要改為 before.

例如：Direct: Joy said, “I read that novel a year ago.”
Indirect: Joy said that she had read that novel a year before.

go to bed vs. go to sleep

go to bed 是就寢，go to sleep是入睡。我們可以確知
自己幾時、幾分、甚致幾秒就寢，但卻無法確知自己
幾時、幾分入睡。

例如：I always go to bed at 11 o’clock every night.
I don’t know when I went to sleep last night.

sometime vs. some time vs. sometimes

1. sometime: (過去的)某一時候；來日，改天

例如：I stayed in Taichung sometime last summer. 去年夏天某個時候，我待過台中。

例如：I’ll go to Taichung to see you sometime next summer. 明年夏天某個時候，我
去台中看你。

2. some time: 一段時間

例如：I stayed in Taichung (for) some time last summer. 去年夏天，我在台中待過一段時間。

3. sometimes: 有時候

例如：Sometimes I go to Taichung for business. 有時候我去台中出差。

always & never 均為頻率副詞

always & never 均為頻率副詞 (adverbs of frequency)，
我們用百分比來細分它們的差異：

always—100% all of the time

usually—80% most of the time

often—50% much of the time

sometimes—30% some of the time

seldom—almost never

never—not at any time