| 单词 | if |
| 例句 | if conjunction 1.•if the rain holds out, we can walk:on (the) condition that, provided (that), providing (that), presuming (that), supposing (that), assuming (that), as long as, given that, in the event that. 2.•if I miss curfew, she lays down the law:whenever, every time. 3.•a useful, if unintended innovation:although, albeit, but, yet, while | even though, despite being | chiefly Brit. whilst.▶noun •there is one if in all this:uncertainty, doubt | condition, stipulation, provision, proviso, constraint, precondition, requirement, specification, restriction.WORD NOTE if Most dictionaries' usage notes for if are long and involved; it might be English's hardest conjunction. From experience born of repeated personal humiliation, I can tell you that there are two main ways to mess up with if and make your writing look weak. The first is to use if for whether. They are not synonyms— if is used to express a conditional, whether to introduce alternative possibilities. True, abstract grammatical distinctions are hard to remember in the heat of composition, but in this case there's a great simple test: If you can coherently insert an "or not" after either the conjunction or the clause it introduces, you need whether. Examples: •He didn't know whether [or not] it would rain ; •She asked me straight out whether I was a fetishist [or not] ; •We told him to call if [or not? no ] he needed a ride [or not? no ]. The second kind of snafu involves a basic rule for using commas with subordinating conjunctions (which are what •if is one of). A subordinating conjunction signals the reader that the clause it's part of is dependent; common subordinating conjunctions include •before, after, while, unless, if, as, and •because. For most kinds of sentences, the relevant rule is easy and worth remembering: Use a comma after the subordinating conjunction's clause only if that clause comes before the independent clause that completes the thought; if the subordinating conjunction's clause comes after the independent clause, there's no comma. Example: •If I were you, I'd put down that hatchet vs. •I'd put down that hatchet if I were you. — DFWConversational, opinionated, and idiomatic, these Word Notes are an opportunity to see a working writer's perspective on a particular word or usage. |
| 随便看 |
英语同义词词典收录了14896条英语词条，基本涵盖了全部常用同义词或反义词的辨析及翻译，是英语学习的有利工具。