Ask & Learn聞問(wèn)切英語(yǔ)口語(yǔ):Time Was...

讀者 Wai Kwok 讀電影 Notting Hill 的劇本時(shí)讀到一句對(duì)白："No, no, I love that you tried. Time was I'd have done the same thing."

Wai Kwok 想問(wèn) "time was" 是什么意思？他的一位英國(guó)朋友懷疑劇中人說(shuō)的應(yīng)該是 "At one time, I'd have done the same thing."

Notting Hill 電影我沒(méi)有看過(guò)，劇本也沒(méi)有讀過(guò)，但我相信 Wai Kwok 的朋友猜對(duì)了意思。然而，句子的結(jié)構(gòu)卻并非 "At one time,..." 而是 "There was a time when..." 的倒裝。

這樣的倒裝屢見(jiàn)不鮮，例如："There is a chance that..." 或 "There is a possibility that..." 有時(shí)故意會(huì)說(shuō)成 "Chance is..." 和 "Possibility is..."。

"There was a time when I'd have done the same thing" 的意思就是我年輕時(shí)也會(huì)做同樣的事。說(shuō)成 "Time was (that) I'd have done the same thing" 就更加老氣橫秋，大有「我是過(guò)來(lái)人」的氣概。

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