Does “Swimming fool” make sense?
真的喚作「游泳傻瓜」?
Learning how to make proper use of verbs to function as adjectives
學習把動詞的現在分詞作形容詞之用
T:Thomas C:Cynthia
C:The scones were good, right Thomas?
T:Good taste! By the way, what’s the next question?
C:I am always a bit confused about things like “swimming pool” and “swimming fool”?
T:Haha, that’s a funny example. Is that from you?
C:I read it somewhere. I find the two examples seem similar grammatically, but I still feel there is something funny about them.
T:You’re touching on present participles of verbs to function as adjectives.
C:Anyway, Is there some difference between them?
T:“Swimming pool” means the pool is “for swimming”, whereas the phrase “swimming fool” refers to a foolish person who is swimming. This second one is similar to such expressions as “dancing queen”; “winning candidate”; “skating idol”.
C:Hmm…That’s a new usage for me. Thanks so much!
C:Thomas,鬆餅很好吃吧?
T:味道很好。你下一個問題是甚麼?
C:我總是弄不清楚「swimming pool」(游泳池)和「swimming fool」(游泳傻瓜)兩詞?
T:哈哈,這是一個有趣的例子。你怎樣想到?
C:我在某處看到的。我覺得這兩詞在文法上看似相同,不過感覺有點怪怪的。
T:您正在觸及動詞的現在分詞作形容詞。
C:那麼,它們之間有甚麼區別嗎?
T:「Swimming pool」的意思是供 游泳用途的水池,而「swimming fool 」是來形容不擅長游泳的笨蛋。後者的英文表達跟「dancing queen」(跳舞皇后)、「winning candidate」(勝選的候選人); 和「skating idol」(滑冰偶像)類似。
C:嗯⋯⋯這些英語運用對我來說是新的知識。謝謝你!