以a-开头的形容词用法新探 ． afraid

1. be [feel, look, seem, sound, become, grow] afraid。例如：

She whispered (to me) that she felt very afraid. 她小声(对我)说她觉得很害怕。

2. make sb afraid。例如：

What has made you so deeply afraid of your boss?

3. a little(Am.E) [a bit(Am.E), a little bit(Am.E), almost, awfully, deadly(Am.E), deathly(Am.E), deeply, desperately, extremely, genuinely, half, just, mortally, much, physically, rather, really, secretly, slightly, simply, suddenly, terribly, truly, very, very much] afraid。例如：

She was tense, almost afraid to open the letter.  她很紧张，几乎不敢打开信。

He was half afraid to look at her. 他有点不敢看她。

You do know, don't you? You are just afraid to tell me. 你确实知道，不是吗？ 你只是不敢告诉我。

■注：有的语法专着认为very不能修饰afraid；只有 much 或very much才可修饰afraid。例如：Michael Swan着Practical English Usage (International Student’s Edition Eighth impression 2002)p28:

We often use very much instead of very before afraid, especially when I’m afraid means ‘I’m sorry to tell you’. 在afraid前面，经常用very much，而不单用very。如果I’m afraid 用来表示I’m sorry to tell you，尤其如此。

但实际上，现在英美语中都能用very 修饰afraid。

(1) 在BNC(英国国家语料库http: / / www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk)

和BUY-BNC BRTISH NATIONAL CORPUS (UK,1980s-1993) (Mark Davies, Brigham Young University ) http: / / corpus.byu.edu / bnc / 上共有26 例 very afraid

(2)在BYU: THE OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY

(http: / / corpus.byu / oed / )上共有1例very afraid

(3) 在BUY CORPUS OF AMERICAN ENGLISH (1990-2008) (Mark Davies, Brigham Young University)

http: / / www.americancorpus.org / 上共有189例very afraid

(4) 在TIME CORPUS OF AMERICAN ENGLISH (1923-2006) (Mark Davies, Brigham Young University ) (http: / / corpus.byu.edu / time)上共有12例very afraid

4. afraid for...。例如：

He is afraid for his own safety. 他担心自己的安全。

5. afraid of。例如：

Charlie is afraid of marriage. 查理害怕结婚。

6. afraid about。例如：

He is afraid about what will happen.他担心将来发生的事。

7. nothing to be afraid of 没什么可害怕的。例如：

Go ahead! There's nothing to be afraid of. 干吧！没有什么可怕的。

8. be afraid of one's own shadow(= be very timid) 很胆小; 非常胆怯。例如：

He had noticed that the horse was afraid of his own shadow. 他已经注意到这匹马很胆小。