有一天 Mark 邀請外國同事,參加另一個同事 Sally 的餐會。結果外國同事就說:I have no time for her.
奇怪了!都還沒有說餐會的時間就說 no time,這是怎麼了?
1. have no time for someone.
朗文字典上解釋:
If you say that you have no time for a person or thing, you mean you do not like them or approve of them.
如果你說對某人或某件事「have no time」,就是指你不喜歡這個人,或者不贊同這件事。
例句:I have no time for people who are always complaining. (我不喜歡老是抱怨的人。)
也可以稍微變化一下,have no time = don't have much time.
I don't have much time for people like him. (我不喜歡像他這樣的人。)
所以當老外說「I don't have time for Sally.」 也許他和 Sally 之間有不愉快,壓根就沒想去,而不只是字面上說的沒時間。
說到沒時間,我們很容易脫口而出「I have no time.」但這句話後面沒有加一點說明,像「I have no time to talk about those issues」(我沒有時間談這些事。)就會讓人想入非非。好比我們告訴朋友,「我時間不多了」,可能會把人嚇壞,朋友還以為是「沒有多少活著的時間」。
真的沒空,時間很趕可以用:
(X)I have no time.
(O)I am running out of time.
(O)I am in a rush/in a hurry.
還有兩個類似錯誤,之前的文章提過,再幫大家複習一下:
2. 我沒經驗:
(X)I have no experience.
(O)I don't know much about it.
Experience 是一個比較籠統的概念,have no experience 究竟是什麼經驗,感覺話沒講完,沒頭沒尾。
3. You have no call to do that.
(X)你沒有打電話做這事。
(O)你沒有必要這樣做。
Call 除了打電話以外,也有「必要,理由」的意思,例如:There's no call for that kind of language! (沒有必要這樣說話。)