找回密码
 注册
搜索
热搜: 超星 读书 找书
查看: 529|回复: 0

[[求助与讨论]] What is the difference between let and leave?

[复制链接]
发表于 2008-1-3 10:27:02 | 显示全部楼层 |阅读模式
Question
I need to understand the appropriate uses of the often confused words: let and leave.
What is a good rule of thumb to remember the different uses?
Response
I don't know any rules of thumb here, but the two verbs don't have much to do with each other except in two special uses. In the old nursery rhyme, \"Little Bo Peep,\" Ms. Peep was urged to \"leave them [the sheep] alone, and they'll come home.\" Burchfield notes that that rhyme was largely responsible for \"leave\" being used where \"let\" would have been more appropriate. \"Leave,\" he says, is a slightly lower \"social register\" than \"let\" in that context. So much for Bo Peep. The two verbs are virtually interchangeable (in any social register) in the phrases \"Leave/let well enough alone\" and \"leave/let him/it be.\"

Authority: The New Fowler's Modern English Usage edited by R.W. Burchfield. Clarendon Press: Oxford, England. 1996. Used with the permission of Oxford University Press.

回复

使用道具 举报

您需要登录后才可以回帖 登录 | 注册

本版积分规则

Archiver|手机版|小黑屋|网上读书园地

GMT+8, 2024-11-14 19:08 , Processed in 0.146926 second(s), 18 queries .

Powered by Discuz! X3.5

© 2001-2024 Discuz! Team.

快速回复 返回顶部 返回列表