Neil Hello, this is Question and Answer of the Week. I'm Neil.
Jiaying And I'm Jiaying. Welcome! 本期节目要回答的问题来自网名是 “闪电小子” 的听众,问题是这样的:
Question 您好,我是 BBC 英语教学的忠实粉丝,我想问一个问题:“despite、as、though、although” 和 “while” 这五个词表示 “虽然,尽管” 时,有不同之处吗?
Neil This is a great question – because these words are all used in very similar ways, but there are differences and these differences are often quite small.
Jiaying 是的,这五个词在用法上的区别不大,所以容易被混淆。
Neil Yes, and the obvious one to start with is 'despite' – all the words we're looking at are used for introducing something contrasting or surprising. 'Despite' does this – but there is one really important thing to remember – what is it, Jiaying?
Neil Yes, that's right – so let's look at these examples, which mean the same thing.
Examples Despite the fact that it's raining, we're going out. (尽管正在下雨,我们还是要出去。)
Despite the rain, we're going out. (尽管下雨了,我们还是要出去。)
Jiaying 在上面的两个例句中,单词 “despite” 后面都接名词成分。第一个例句中的 “despite” 后面接 “the fact”,第二个例句中的 “despite” 后面接 “the rain”,但两句话的含义基本相同。另外要注意,在本期节目中给出的多数例句中,主从句的顺序可以互换,语句仍正确,句意不变。
Neil So, as you'll see, sometimes the word we choose has an impact on the structure of our sentences. We have to follow 'despite' with a noun, and if we want to use 'as' in this way, we have to use a special word order.
Examples Raining as it is, we're going out. (尽管正在下雨,我们还是要出去。)
Difficult as it is, we're going to succeed. (尽管这件事情很难,但我们一定会成功。)
Jiaying 在上面的两个例句中,“as” 引导的从句应以部分倒装的形式出现。比如,第一句话 “Raining as it is” 中提前到 “as” 前的部分为 “raining”;第二句话中 “Difficult as it is” 中提前的部分为 “difficult”。
Neil You might find this more often in literary language, or anywhere where someone is using language carefully and deliberately. It's not just 'as' that we can use in this way – 'though' can also work in this structure.
Examples Although it's raining, we're going out. (虽然正在下雨,但我们还是要出去。)
Though it's sunny, we're staying in. (虽然天气晴朗,但我们还是要待在家里。)
Neil So, yes, 'though' and 'although' can be used in the same way – and here they are interchangeable with 'despite the fact that'. Note that 'though' is probably more common than 'although', especially in speech.