The word “account” can mean a variety of things, depending on the context in which it is used. It also has many idiomatic uses. As a result, if not used with great care, the word can cause ambiguity and make sentences difficult to understand。

根據(jù)不同的語境，account這個(gè)詞可以有很多不同的解釋，也有很多約定俗成的固定用法。因此，如果在使用account這個(gè)詞時(shí)未加注意，那么就有可能造成歧義和理解上的困難。

Consider the following sentence (it’s an exaggeration, but I have often seen similar)：

來看一下下面這個(gè)例句(雖然這是個(gè)極端的情況，但我確實(shí)經(jīng)常看到類似的句子)：

On account of a payment made on account of the service charges on the Lessor’s account, no further payments on this account are necessary。

由于與服務(wù)相關(guān)的賬目費(fèi)用已經(jīng)匯入Lessor的銀行賬戶，因此沒有必要再付任何費(fèi)用了。

The word “account” appears four times, and has three different meanings. This makes the sentence thoroughly confusing for a reader, and so some serious editing is necessary。

在這句話中，account這個(gè)詞出現(xiàn)了四次，包含了三種不同的含義。這就讓讀者很難理解這句話想表達(dá)的意思，因此需要做出一些必要的修改。

First of all let’s look at each phrase in turn: (1) On account of a payment made (2) on account of the service charges (3) on the Lessor’s account, no further payments (4) on this account are necessary。首先讓我們來看一下每個(gè)用到account的詞組搭配：(1) On account of a payment made (2) on account of the service charges (3) on the Lessor’s account, no further payments (4) on this account are necessary。

(1) The first phrase, on account of means literally “by reason of”. The writer could also use “due to”， “as a result of”， or “because of”。(1)第一個(gè)詞組“On account of”就是“由于、因?yàn)?rdquo;的意思。作者也可以用“due to”，“as a result of”或者“because of”等來表示。

(2) The second use of on account of is ambiguous because it does not mean “by reason of”. Rather it means “on the service charge account”， i.e. the record of credits related to the service charges。

(2)第二個(gè)詞組中的“on account of”就有些歧義，在這里它并不表示“由于、因?yàn)?rdquo;的意思，更傾向于表示“服務(wù)費(fèi)賬目”，即與服務(wù)費(fèi)相關(guān)的信用記錄。

(3) The phrase on the Lessor’s account contains an error that I frequently see. It is a serious mistake because it changes the meaning of the sentence. What the writer means is “into the Lessor’s (bank) account”. However, the phrase “on someone’s account” is idiomatic and means “on someone’s behalf”. But this payment was not made on the Lessor’s behalf, rather it was made into his bank account!

(3)第三個(gè)詞組中的“on the Lessor’s account”出現(xiàn)了一個(gè)我經(jīng)?？吹降腻e(cuò)誤。這是一個(gè)嚴(yán)重的問題，因?yàn)樗淖兞苏湓挼囊馑肌Ｗ髡呦胍磉_(dá)的意思應(yīng)該是“匯入Lessor的銀行賬戶”。但是“on someone’s account”是有固定用法的，相當(dāng)于“on someone’s behalf”(代表某人)。但這個(gè)詞組的意思并不是“代表Lessor的賬戶”，而是把錢匯入Lessor的賬戶!

Remember that in English payments are made “into or to a bank account” and NOT “on a bank account”。記住，在英語中，付款是“匯入(into或者to)某人的賬戶”，而不是“在(on)某人的賬戶上”。

(4) The last phrase – on this account– has three possible meanings. It contains the same ambiguity as the second use of on account of: Does the writer mean “for this reason”， or is he referring to the record of credits related to the services charges? The third possible meaning is “into a bank account”. Although this phrase is very ambiguous, it does not actually cause a problem here because the sentence ultimately means the same thing whichever way you understand this phrase。

最后一個(gè)詞組“on this account”有三種不同的含義。首先，和第二個(gè)詞組on account of一樣，on this account到底是表示“由于(for this reason)”的意思，還是表示“與服務(wù)費(fèi)相關(guān)的賬目”的意思?以上就包含了兩個(gè)不同的意思。第三種意思是“匯入銀行賬戶(into a bank account)”。雖然這個(gè)詞組很有歧義，不過在前后文中它的意思還是很明確的，不管你怎么理解這個(gè)詞組，它所表達(dá)的意思都是一樣的。

But I think you’ll agree that it is not very satisfactory to write something that can be interpreted in three different ways。但是，我想如果一個(gè)詞組可以有三種解釋，你也不會(huì)對(duì)這種用法感到滿意吧。