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●「詞彙篇Q&A--- Unit 1 形容詞」部份內文:
有人說She should wait until she is sure to know his character before she marries him.這句中的sure to know應改為sure of knowing才對,但字典上明明說這兩種用法都可以啊!
※解答:
誠然,sure to know的確應改為sure of knowing,請看下面的分析就知道其中的原因。sure的主要句型有三:
1.be sure + that/wh-子句-意為「確信......」,「對......有把握」
2.be sure of /about +動名詞-意爲「確信…...」,「對......有把握」
3.be sure to do-意為「一定會,必定會」
注意:在這些句型中,sure 都可用 certain 來代替,亦即這兩者的意思和慣用句型完全一樣。例如:
˙We are sure/certain of winning. (我們確信╱肯定會贏。)
˙I am sure/certain that he will come. (我確信╱肯定他會來。)
關於這兩個字的用法,有一點必須特別注意:certain和sure後面接不定詞與後面接of +動名詞的意思並不相同。後接of +動名詞是表示句子的主詞「自己相信」,而後接不定詞則是表示「別人相信」句子的主詞。例如:
˙He is sure of winning. (他自信會贏。)
˙He is sure to win. (我們相信他一定會贏。)
˙It’s sure/certain to rain. (一定會下雨。)→(○)正確
˙It’s sure/certain of raining.
→(x)錯誤
這句的意思是說「天自己確信一定會下雨」,當然不通。
然而,當句子的主詞為代替名詞子句的虛主詞 it 時,一般都使用certain,而不用sure。例如:
˙It is certain (not sure) that he’ll come tomorrow. (他明天肯定會來。)-句中It = that he’ll come tomorrow。
所以,問題中的句子必須改為She should wait until she is sure of knowing his character before she marries him. (她應該等到她確信瞭解他的個性後才嫁給他。)才對。