VOA名师答疑2023 专有形容词的用法(上)

Hello!

大家好!

This week on Ask a Teacher, we will answer a question from Gustavo in Brazil about using proper adjectives to describe someone.

本周《名师答疑》，我们回答来自巴西的古斯塔沃的问题，这个问题关于用专有形容词来描述人。

Hello, my name is Gustavo, from Brazil.

你好，我叫古斯塔沃，来自巴西。

I have been learning English with you for many years.

我跟着你们学英语已经很多年了。

Thank you for all of the stories!

谢谢你们的所有讲解！

I have a question.

我有个问题要问。

I want to say, "my Spanish teacher" meaning "my teacher from Spain".

我想说，my Spanish teacher的意思是"我来自西班牙的老师"。

Then I realized that it could also mean "my teacher that teaches Spanish language classes."

然后我意识到它也可以是"我教西班牙语课的老师"。

So, which is it? Does it mean both?

那么，到底是哪一个意思呢？还是两种意思都有？

Thank you very much for reading my message!

非常感谢阅读我的来信！

Gustavo.

古斯塔沃。

Thanks for your question and for reading our website so often.

感谢你的提问，也感谢你经常访问我们的网站。

In English, we have a limited number of adjectives to describe what language someone speaks or teaches, or where they are from.

在英语中，一些数量有限的形容词用来描述一个人说什么或教什么语言，或者他们来自哪里。

However, we can use proper adjectives and prepositions as well as other structures to help our understanding.

然而，我们可以通过专有形容词和介词以及其他结构来帮助我们理解。

Let us start with proper adjectives.

让我们先讲专有形容词。

Proper adjectives come from proper nouns, which are words or groups of words that name a specific person, place or thing.

专有形容词来自专有名词，专有名词是用来指代特定的人、地方或事物的词或词组。

Proper nouns and adjectives begin with a capital letter, so they are easy to spot.

专有名词和专有形容词以大写字母开头，因此很容易辨认。

Proper adjectives that describe a country of origin or language come from their proper nouns.

描述来源国家或语言的专有形容词来自其专有名词。

These adjectives mean "of or relating to the country, its people, language or culture."

这些形容词的意思是"属于或关于这个国家、人民、语言或文化的"。

"Spanish" means relating to Spain.

"西班牙的"指的是与西班牙有关的。

So we can talk about "Spanish people" and "Spanish culture."

所以我们可以说"西班牙人"和"西班牙文化"。

"Spanish" is also the proper adjective to describe the language of Spain.

Spanish也是形容西班牙语言的专有形容词。

Generally, when we talk about teaching or learning a language, we use the proper adjective of the language to describe the teacher or student.

一般来说，当我们谈论教或学一门语言时，我们用该语言的专有形容词来描述老师或学生。

For example, I am an English teacher.

例如，我是一名英语教师。

I teach English, but I am not from England; I am from the U.S.

我教英语，但我不是英国人；我是美国人。

In your question, the proper adjective of "Spanish" is modifying the noun "teacher."

在你的问题中，专有形容词Spanish修饰名词"老师"。

Therefore, a "Spanish teacher" means someone who teaches the Spanish language.

因此，Spanish teacher指的是教授西班牙语的人。

We can use the preposition "from" to describe where our language teachers are originally from.

我们可以用介词from来描述我们的语言老师来自哪里。

My Russian teacher is from the country of Georgia.

我的俄语老师来自格鲁吉亚。

Her French teacher is from Canada.

她的法语老师来自加拿大。

Using the preposition "from" makes the sentence clearer by providing more information.

使用介词from可以提供更多的信息，从而使句子更清晰。

Next week, we will continue talking about proper adjectives and other ways to describe your teacher!

下周，我们将继续谈论专有形容词，以及用来描述你的老师的其他方式！

Please let us know if these examples and explanations have helped you, Gustavo!

请让我们知道这些例子和解释是否对你有帮助，古斯塔沃！

And that’s Ask a Teacher.

以上就是本期《名师答疑》。

I’m Faith Pirlo.

我是费思·皮尔洛。