密歇根新闻广播 fact of the matter这个表达正确吗?

Last week on That's What They Say, we had so much fun talking about "factoids" we thought we'd answer another fact-related question this week.

A couple weeks ago, English professor Anne Curzan gave a talk at Glacier¹ Hills Senior Living Community in Ann Arbor². Following the talk, a woman asked a question Curzan had never considered.

She wanted to know, "Why is everyone now talking about the fact of the matter? Why can't they just talk about facts?"

Good question.

The Oxford³ English Dictionary says "fact of the matter" comes into the language in 1808, so it's clearly not new. It had a surge⁴ in popularity⁵ in the mid-19th century, when people started using the expression as a way to talk about the truth of whatever it was they were talking about.

"Fact of the matter" saw a steady increase in use for about 100 years, before leveling off in the 1970s and 1980s. So it's not actually becoming more popular, but it's not getting less popular either.

One thing that Curzan noticed, when she checked the usage⁶ databases⁷, is that when we use "fact of the matter," we tend to use it at the beginning of a sentence. There aren't many examples that have it at the end, though you could say something like, "That's the simple fact of the matter."

"For the most part, it's a way we start a sentence, and it's emphatic⁸ -- 'the fact of the matter is' or 'let me tell you the truth of this.' When I looked in the Corpus of Contemporary American English, [this usage] appeared 1,907 times," Curzan said.

Interestingly, if make you make "fact" plural⁹, the phrase suddenly gets much less popular. Curzan only found 32 examples including, "I would like to know the facts of the matter" and "that doesn't change the facts of the matter."

Have you noticed other non-slang phrases that suddenly seem like they're everywhere? Let us know at [email protected] or [email protected], and we'll track down the facts of the matter.

1 glacier   

n.冰川，冰河

参考例句：

• The glacier calved a large iceberg.冰河崩解而形成一个大冰山。
• The upper surface of glacier is riven by crevasses.冰川的上表面已裂成冰隙。

2 arbor   

n.凉亭；树木

参考例句：

• They sat in the arbor and chatted over tea.他们坐在凉亭里，边喝茶边聊天。
• You may have heard of Arbor Day at school.你可能在学校里听过植树节。

3 Oxford   

n.牛津（英国城市）

参考例句：

• At present he has become a Professor of Chemistry at Oxford.他现在已是牛津大学的化学教授了。
• This is where the road to Oxford joins the road to London.这是去牛津的路与去伦敦的路的汇合处。

4 surge   

n.汹涌，澎湃；vi.汹涌，强烈感到，飞涨；vt.放开，松手

参考例句：

• The surge travelled southwards along the coast.浪涛沿着海岸向南涌去。
• It failed to stimulate a surge of investment in industry.这没有能刺激工业投资的激增。

5 popularity   

n.普及，流行，名望，受欢迎

参考例句：

• The story had an extensive popularity among American readers.这本小说在美国读者中赢得广泛的声望。
• Our product enjoys popularity throughout the world.我们的产品饮誉全球。

6 usage   

n.惯用法，使用，用法

参考例句：

• I am clear about the usage of this word at last.这个词的用法我算是弄明白了。
• The usage is now firmly established.这种用法现已得到确认。

7 databases   

n.资料库( database的名词复数 )；数据库；（贮存在计算机中的）数据库

参考例句：

• For example, this problem crops up frequently when querying databases. 例如，在查询数据库时，这一问题频频出现。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓
• Databases of abstracts would eventually become redundant. 文摘数据库最终将成为多余。 来自辞典例句

8 emphatic   

adj.强调的，着重的；无可置疑的，明显的

参考例句：

• Their reply was too emphatic for anyone to doubt them.他们的回答很坚决，不容有任何人怀疑。
• He was emphatic about the importance of being punctual.他强调严守时间的重要性。

9 plural   

n.复数；复数形式；adj.复数的

参考例句：

• Most plural nouns in English end in's '.英语的复数名词多以s结尾。
• Here you should use plural pronoun.这里你应该用复数代词。