燕窩才子陶傑有隻吊靴鬼 - 占飛

2011年5月23日 - 信報

「燕窩才子」自從兩年前畀個不懂香港文化界潛規則的專欄作家踢爆寫文法不正確的英文之後，錯英文就像吊靴鬼一樣跟住他。他今次有啲無辜，因為那個礙眼的錯誤不是出現在他署名的文章之中，而是文章下面幾句關於他的簡介。

英文免費雜誌HK每期都這樣介紹他：「Chip Tsao is a best-selling author and columnist. A former reporter for the BBC, his columns have also appeared in Apple Daily, Next Magazine and CUP Magazine, among others.」

寫作指南列明正確句子守則

寫這段文字的人，想必沒有讀過被很多職業寫作人奉為聖經的The Elements of Style。這本權威的英文寫作指南列出有關用法的八大守則（Elementary Rules of Usage），第七大守則就是「句子開端的分詞片語，所指的必須是句子當中文法上的主語」。原文照錄如下：A participial phrase at the beginning of a sentence must refer to the grammatical subject。

它還舉了一個例子。「On arriving in Chicago, his friends met him at the station.」是錯的英文，要改寫為 「When he arrived（or, On his arrival）in Chicago, his friends met him at the station.」才啱文法。

同樣道理，「A former reporter for the BBC, his columns have also appeared in Apple Daily, Next Magazine and CUP Magazine, among others.」須改寫為：「A former reporter for the BBC, he also writes columns that have appeared in Apple Daily, Next Magazine and CUP Magazine, among others.」明未？