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‘It’s a pity.’ 跟 ‘It’s a shame.’ 的用法是一樣嗎?

一天,學生在課堂上用到了 ‘It’s a pity.’ 來形容她在工作中所遇到的挫折。
並問到 ‘It’s a pity.’ 跟 ‘It’s a shame.’ 的用法是一樣嗎?
 

在大部份的句子中,兩種句型是可以互通的。
 

‘It’s a pity you can’t come to my birthday party.’ (好可惜…..)

‘It's a shame Tom couldn't make it to your party.’ (好可惜…..)


但在有些情境中,’It’s a shame.’ 有影射某人的行為較不恰當;’It’s a pity.’ 相較下會用在表達同情的情況下使用。


It’s a pity. 可惜; 真遗憾; 可惜的


It’s a shame. 真遗憾; 真丢人; 令人惭愧;



舉個例子:

A: "Poor little Rachel. She had her heart set on being on that chorus team. It's a pity she didn't make it."
 

B: "Well, if you ask me, it's a shame the way they treated her at the tryouts. One out of tune and she was disqualified. They didn't even give the girl a second chance!" 

 


在B句中,使用 ‘It’s a pity.’ 會比較不適當。
 

 

同樣的道理,再來看一個例句: 


‘I think it's a shame that some foreign language teachers were able to graduate from college without ever having studied with a native speaker.'



你有感覺到那種 ‘不恰當’ 的意思了嗎?

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