商務英語郵件易錯點

才智咖 人氣:1.63W

導語:寫商務郵件的時候經常有人犯錯,不是所有的雙重否定就是肯定的,下面是本站小編整理的商務英語郵件易錯點,歡迎參考!

商務英語郵件易錯點

Part One

WRONG

錯誤

This Escrow Account Agreement expires if no money is not credited to the Escrow Account by 30 June.

假如在6月30日之前沒有錢被存入第三方託管賬戶,該第三方託管賬戶協議即告截止。

Although this grammatical construction is correct in many languages, it is not correct in English. It was, however, common usage several centuries ago, and it still exists in colloquial English now. This explains well known examples such as “I can’t get no satisfaction” and “We don’t need no education”. But it is not correct in formal written English.

儘管這種語法結構在很多語言中都是正確的,但在英語中卻是錯的。然而,在很多個世紀以前,這種用法非常常見,而在今天的英語口語中,也依然存在。這解釋了一些有名的例子,比如“I can’t get no satisfaction 我得不到滿足”以及“We don’t need no education 我們不需要教育”。但在正式的書面英語中,這並不是正確的。

The grammatical concept is called “negative concord”. In languages that have negative concord, such as Spanish, Polish and Hungarian, the double negative intensifies the negation. However, in languages that do not have negative concord, such as Standard English and German, a double negative is understood to resolve into a positive.

這種語法概念叫做“否定和諧”。在有否定和諧的語言中,比如西班牙語、波蘭語和匈牙利語,這種雙重否定會加重否定。然而在那些不具有否定和諧的`語言中,比如標準英語和德語,雙重否定會形成肯定。

So the above example technically means:

所以那句例句實際上意味著:

This Escrow Account Agreement expires if money is credited to the Escrow Account by 30 June.

如果在6月30日之前有錢被存入第三方託管賬戶,該第三方託管賬戶協議即告截止。

In reality, of course, it is unlikely anyone would understand it this way, as it wouldn’t make any sense. But the sentence should be corrected as follows:

在現實中,當然,不會有什麼人會這樣理解它的,因為這樣毫無意義。但是這句話還是應該被改成這樣:

RIGHT

正確

This Escrow Account Agreement expires if no money is credited to the Escrow Account by 30 June 2013.

如果在2013年6月30日之前沒有錢被存入第三方託管賬戶,該第三方託管賬戶協議即告截止。

Part Two

Read this:

讀讀這個:

If the Deposit is not paid, the Seller has the right to rescind this Agreement by a notice in writing to the Purchaser delivered within 30 days from the date of this Agreement, provided that such rescission right shall not be effective unless and until the Seller does not rescind the Preliminary Agreement for the Property.

如果保證金並未償付,賣家有權於該協議成立之日起30日內書面告知買家解除該協議。除非賣家並未解除資產預備協議,否則該解除行為將不會生效。

Got it? If not, feel free to read it again. And again… and probably again.

你讀懂了嗎?如果沒讀懂,你就再讀一遍,再讀一遍……或許還要再讀一遍。

Got it now? Perhaps you should read it once more just to double check.

現在懂了嗎?或許你應該再讀一遍來檢查一下。

No doubt you’re having trouble with this part: “…shall not be effective unless and until the Seller does not rescind…”

毫無疑問你會對這段有所疑惑:“……除非賣家並未解除資產預備協議,否則該解除行為將不會生效。……”

I think you’ll agree that the difficulty is mainly due to the use of multiple negatives – “shall not”, “unless” and “does not”. It’s more of a brain teaser than a practical piece of communication. Unfortunately most of us don’t have the time or inclination to work out brain teasers.

我相信你們都會認同難點主要來自多重否定的使用——“將不會”、“除非”和“不會”。這不是實用的交流方式,而是腦筋急轉彎。不幸的是,我們大部分都沒時間也沒興趣去做什麼腦筋急轉彎。

So – my advice is simple: Don’t use multiple negatives. Write something like this instead:

因此——我的建議很簡單:不要使用多重否定。用這樣的寫法來代替:

If the Deposit is not paid, the Seller has the right to rescind this Agreement by written notice to the Purchaser delivered within 30 days of the date of this Agreement. However, the rescission right is not effective if the Seller has rescinded the Preliminary Agreement for the Property.

如果保證金並未償付,賣家有權在該協議成立之日起30日內書面告知買家解除該協議。但如賣家已解除資產預備協議,該解除行為將不能生效。

I know I’m taking something of a risk pretending I’ve understood the original correctly, but I’m willing to do so. If my interpretation is wrong, far from showing my lack of intelligence, it proves how bad the writer is at communicating.

我知道這麼說有風險,那就是我不一定正確地理解了原文的意思,但我願意這麼做。假如我理解錯了,這除了表現出我智商不夠用以外,更多地是表現了原作者的溝通能力是有多差。

In case I haven’t convinced you that multiple negatives are a bad idea, here are a few more brain teasers for you to waste your time on:

要是我還沒有能夠說服你多重否定是個多糟糕的做法,以下是一些更難的浪費你時間的腦筋急轉彎:

The following actions are not excluded from the prohibition.

以下行為並沒有被排除在禁令之外。

No termination will be approved unless the administrator reviews the application and finds that it is not lacking in any requisite materials.

除非管理員檢視申請並發現其並不缺少任何必備材料的情況下,任何終止都不會被允許。