喜樂美語

核心畫面

An unusual word: you will almost never meet sake standing on its own. It lives inside fixed frames — for the sake of…, for God's sake, for its own sake — where it names the thing a person is acting for: whose good, or what purpose, the action is aimed at. Because the bare noun barely exists in modern English, the honest way to learn it is frame by frame. (A completely separate word, borrowed from Japanese, is also spelled sake.)

這是一個很特別的字：你幾乎不會看到 sake 單獨出現。它活在幾組固定的說法裡——for the sake of…、…更多收起這是一個很特別的字：你幾乎不會看到 sake 單獨出現。它活在幾組固定的說法裡——for the sake of…、for God's sake、for its own sake——在裡面負責指出「這個行動是衝著誰、衝著什麼目的去的」。因為單獨的名詞在現代英文裡幾乎不存在，最實在的學法是一組一組記下來，而不是先去想它單獨是什麼意思。另外提醒：日文借來的「清酒」也拼成 sake，那是完全不同的一個字。

Three branches

為了誰、為了什麼

這是這個字真正的意思所在：句子先講你做了什麼，再用 for the sake of 指出那個「衝著去」的對象。

for someone's benefit · noun · B1

used to say that you do something in order to help or please someone, or to get a good result

為了(某人或某事)

加重語氣的呼喊

同樣是「為了…」，只是把對象換成一個很大的名義（God、heaven、goodness），用來把一句話的份量加重——本來是講目的，現在變成講情緒。

for God's sake (emphasizing a request) · noun · B1

used before or after a request to show that you really mean it and it matters

拜託(加強語氣)

日文借來的清酒

這一條和上面所有用法沒有關係，只是拼法剛好一樣。這是兩個不同的字，同形而意思不相通。

rice wine · noun · B1

a traditional Japanese drink made from rice that is only for adults

清酒

原始詞典資料5 筆記錄

以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。

sakenoun詞源 1/ˈseɪ̯k/

  • 1

    Cause, interest or account.

    • For the sake of argument
    • I hope you're right, for all our sakes!
  • 2

    Purpose or end; reason.

    • for old times' sake
    • It's not worth risking your life for the sake of getting there a few minutes earlier.
  • 3

    The benefit or regard of someone or something.

    • Ne ãd except thoſe dayes ſhulde be ſhoꝛtened / ſhulde no fleſſe be faved: Butt foꝛ the choſens ſake thoſe dayes ſhalbe ſhoꝛtened.
    • When I gave a dinner there was generally a cover laid for him. I liked the man for his own sake, and even had he promised to turn out a celebrity it would have had no weight with me.
  • 4

    Contention, strife; guilt, sin, accusation or charge.

    • And unto Adam He said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life.

這個拼法也被記錄為下列字的變化形：

資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。