Question

怎么用英语表达“理解”“明白”的意思呢？

Answer 1

　　怎么向对方表达自己已经理解了呢?或者，没明白，请对方再详细解说一遍呢?

　　(一)　表示“理解”、“明白”的动词短语

　　catch on、take in、make out

　　get sth. across、put sth. across、

　　come across

　　(二)这组动词短语可以表示“理解”、“明白”的意思。

　　catch on 由catch“抓住”引申出“理解”、“领会”、“明白”的意思。

　　1)After his repeated explanations, he at least caught on his meaning.

　　经过他再三解释,他至少明白了他的意思。

　　2)Being a foreigner, Carl did not catch on the joke.

　　卡尔是个外国人，不能理解这笑话的含意。

　　3)Please repeat what you said, I didn't quite catch on.

　　请把你的话再说一遍，我没十分听明白。

　　4)I did not know why they were laughing at his remark, but in a while, I caught

　　on and laughed too.

　　我不知道他们为什么笑他的讲话，但过了一会儿我明白了，也跟着笑了起来。

　　take in 基本意思是“吸收”，相当于absorb，由此引申出“理解”、“领悟”的意思。

　　1)I couldn’t take in what the American was saying though I listened to his

　　speech carefully.

　　尽管我听的很仔细，我还是听不明白这位美国人讲话。

　　2)The students found it easy to take in what their teacher had taught.

　　学生们发现老师所教的东西很容易理解。

　　3)Lesley explains possible treatments but you can tell she's not taking it in.

　　莱斯利解释了各种可行的疗法，不过，你可以看出来，她并没有领会。

　　4)I could hardly take in what the old man said.

　　我几乎听不懂老人说了什么。

　　make out 也可以表示“理解”、“明白”的意思，相当于 understand，常接 wh-clause。

　　1)Can you make out the meaning of the poem?

　　你能理解这首诗的意义吗?

　　2)He couldn't quite make out what it was all about.

　　他不大能理解这是怎么回事。

　　3)I can't make out why she married with the left hand.

　　我真搞不懂她怎么会嫁给了那个穷小子。

　　4)I can't make out why he seems to have a bone to pick with almost everyone.

　　我真搞不懂为什么他好象和几乎每个人都有仇似的。

　　5)I really can't make out what on earth he's up to.

　　我真是搞不懂他到底想干什么。

　　get sth. across “让人理解”、“让人明白”、“把·····讲清楚”，也可说

　　put sth across，是及物动词用法。

　　1)The teacher tried to explain the problem, but he did not get his

　　explanation across to the students.

　　老师试图解释这个问题,但是他没有能让得学生明白到他的解释。

　　2)The aim of writing a summary is precision, which means you must convey what

　　the author wanted to get across, but in few words.

　　摘要的目的`是简练,这意味着你必须用很少的词表达清楚作者想要传达的意思。

　　3)This video, I think, gets across the concept that I'm talking about quite

　　dramatically.

　　我想这个视频能够很好的让大家理解我所说的概念。

　　4)Love is something we can get across without words.

　　即使没有言语沟通，我们也能使感受到爱。

　　5)The speaker had a good knowledge of his subject, but could not put it

　　across.

　　报告人对所讲的问题了解得很透彻, 但就是讲不清楚。

　　6)The idea of a balanced diet is very difficult to put across to anyone who

　　knows nothing about food values.

　　对于不懂得食物价值的人来说，很难理解均衡饮食的观念.

　　come across 也可表示“让人理解”、“让人明白”、“把·····讲清楚”的意思，

　　不过是不及物动词用法。句子主语是物，多用于否定句。

　　1)The teacher tried to explain the problem, but his explanation did not come

　　across to the students.

　　老师试图解释这个问题，但是他没有能让得学生明白到他的解释。

　　2)He spoke for a long time but his meaning did not come across.

　　他讲了很久，但没把意思讲明白。

　　3)Your speech didn't come across; nobody understood your opinion.

　　你的演说讲得不明不白，没有人能听懂你的意思。