|
car_breakdown_203x15214.jpg
Some of my Chinese colleagues asked me about the phrase 'well and truly'. We can say 'well and truly stuck' but not 'well and truly beautiful'. Are there any rules for using this phrase or is it just a case of learning it? Is 'well and truly' an adverb and what should follow it, or is it an adjective and is it only for negative things?
全文听写，英式拼法，每周二四六更新
KatieThank you for your question Katie. And first let me explain what 'well and truly stuck' means. If something is 'well and truly stuck' you really can not move it. So for example if your car breaks down and you try to push it and it won't move it may be well and truly stuck. So 'well and truly' here means absolutely stuck, you can't move it. And really when we say something is well and truly stuck it shows that we are actually a little bit frustrated or we really aren't very happy about the fact that we can't move it. So for example if I come home and I want to have a biscuit and I look in the biscuit tin and there are none there I can say 'well they are well and truly finished'.
However 'well and truly' is a very difficult phrase to use because it doesn't go with lots and lots of different adjectives. If you were to say the words 'well and truly' to someone in Britain they would imagine that the next word would be stuck. 'Well and truly' is an adverbial phrase to describe the adjective stuck. And they just go together.
There are no clear rules for why certain adverbs go with certain adjectives, they just do. | 
发表于 2016-8-2 13:43:21