商务英语写作指南：介词of大揭秘

I find that non-native English speakers tend to use the word “of” much too often. “Of” is also frequently used incorrectly instead of other prepositions.

我发现非英语为母语的人经常用of这个词，但是这个词比起其他介词来，也更常被误用。

Non-native English speakers tend to write, for example, the attorney of the claimant where native speakers would write the claimant’s attorney. Although both structures are grammatically correct, phrases like the attorney of the claimant increase the “wordiness” and complexity of a sentence and make your writing more difficult to read.

非英语为母语的人喜欢这样表达“the attorney of the claimant”(原告的律师)，而英语国家人士则习惯于这样表达“the claimant’s attorney”。虽然两种表达在语法上都是正确的，但是用of的词组表达则显得语句更为累赘，使句子更加难以理解。

Here are some examples:

看下面的这些例子：

Note that all these examples refer to a person or a group of people – i.e. the claimant, the regulatory authority, the Management Board, the Shareholders’ Meeting, the Company and the Contractor.

以上的例子所指代的对象都是某人或由某些人组成的组织，比如原告、管理机构、管理局、股东大会、公司和承包人，所以可以用’s来代替of。

Now look at other examples:

再看下面这组例子：

There are no people involved in any of these examples, so it is better to use of instead of ’s.

这些例子里，都没有涉及到任何人，所以在这里较为恰当的用法还是使用of来代替’s。

I should add, however, that this is a general rule, and there are exceptions to it. But if you follow this rule, it should – most of the time – make your writing easier to read.

我要特别指出的是，这是一条通用法则，当然还有特殊情况。不过，如果你学会了这条法则的话，大多数时候，你的英语写作会更容易阅读。