(单词翻译:单击)
Today on Ask a Teacher, we answer an email from Nathaniel in South Sudan. He asks:
在今天的名师答疑节目上，我们回复来自南苏丹的纳撒尼尔的一封邮件。他问道：
What is the difference between phone, call and ring?
Phone、call和ring之间有什么区别？
Hi, Nathaniel! That is a great question.
你好，纳撒尼尔，这个问题问得好。
We use these words when talking about telephone calls and other kinds of communication.
我们在谈到打电话或是其他通讯方式的时候会用到这些词语。
All three words can be used as nouns and have a verb form.
这三个单词都能用作名词，也有动词形式。
Today, I will be looking at the verb forms.
今天，我们来看看动词形式。
The Scottish-born scientist and engineer Alexander Graham Bell is famous for his invention of the telephone.
英格兰出生的科学家和工程师亚历山大·格雷厄姆·贝尔（Alexander Graham Bell）因发明电话而闻名。
In 1876, the United States government approved a patent on Bell's telephone.
1876年，美国政府批准了贝尔的电话专利。
The move gave him the exclusive right to the technology.
这让他获得了该技术的专有权。
So no one else could manufacture or sell his invention for a number of years.
因此多年来没有人可以制造或销售他的这项发明。
Since that time, people have shortened the noun "telephone" to "phone" and started to use it as a verb, meaning to call someone on a telephone.
自那时候起，人们将telephone这个名词缩写为phone，并开始作为动词使用，意思是给某人打电话。
In Britain, it is common to hear people use the verb "ring" for this same purpose.
在英国，人们常常用ring这个动词来表示相同的意思。
But there is no rule that requires a speaker of American English to only use "phone" or a speaker of British English to only use "ring."
但是，并没有规定要求美国的说话者只用phone，也没有要求英国的说话者只使用ring。
Here are some examples of how we use "phone."
以下是我们如何使用phone的一些例子。
Can I phone my wife? She would know the answer to this.
我可以给我老婆打个电话吗？她会知道答案。
She couldn't stop to phone for help.
她没空打电话求救。
You may hear the verb "ring" when someone talks about the sound of alarm bells.
当有人谈到警钟的铃声时，你可能会听到ring这个动词。
I heard the doorbell ring.
我听到门铃响。
The sign said, 'Ring for Service.'
标牌上写着：“需要服务请打电话。”
In addition, a common two-word verb is "ring up."
此外，ring up是一个常见的双词动词。
We may ask a store employee to "ring up" our purchase, that is, enter the prices on a machine.
我们可能会要求商店员工ring up我们购买的商品，意思是在机器上输入价格。
Google's Ngram Viewer is an online tool to learn about words.
谷歌的书籍词频统计器是一个研究单词的网络工具。
It looks at the words from Google books to show how often people use words over time and in what places.
它会查看谷歌图书中文字，展示出人们在一段时间内使用某个单词的频率以及场所。
We used the Google Ngram Viewer to compare British and American usage of the three words.
我们使用书籍词频统计器来比较英国和美国对这三个单词的使用。
The first ngram looked at British English. It found that the word 'ring' was a little more popular than 'phone.'
我们首先用书籍词频统计器查看了英式英语，发现ring这个单词比phone更受欢迎。
The second ngram looked at American English. It found that 'phone' is more popular than 'ring.'
然后我们用书籍词频统计器查看了美式英语，发现phone比ring更受欢迎。
In both online tests, the word "call" was much more common than either ‘phone' or ‘ring'.
在这两项网络测试中，call这个单词都比phone和ring更为常见。
English speakers often use "call" to talk about using the telephone to contact someone, such as in the following sentence:
英语说话者经常使用call来谈论用电话联系某人。例如在下面的句子中：
Call the police.
打电话报警。
Even more often, we use it in a general sense, as in "give a name to" or "label."
更常见的是我们在一般意义上的使用call用作“取名”或“标注。”
They do not want us to call them pirates, but they are stealing.
他们不想我们叫他们强盗，但是他们在偷窃。
Do you call that bag of potato chips your dinner?
你把那袋薯片称为晚餐吗？
We also use "call" in the sense of "ask" or "request."
我们还把call用作邀请或要求的意义。
Let's call a meeting for tomorrow afternoon.
我们明天下午召开会议。
So here is my advice on using phone, call and ring:
以下是我对使用phone、call和ring的建议。
You can use any one of them to refer to making a telephone call.
你可以使用其中任何一个单词来表示打电话。
"Call" is the most common in American English.
call在美式英语中最为常见。
As you learn more English, you will learn many expressions that include "call."
随着你学到更多英语，你将会学习到许多包含call的表达。
I'll share one with you here:
我在这里给大家分享一个：
Let's call it a day.
今天就到这吧。
That is, our work is done; let's take a deep breath and relax.
意思就是，我们工作结束了。让我们深呼吸，放松一下。
And that's Ask a Teacher!
以上就是本期名师答疑的全部内容。
I'm Jill Robbins.
我是吉尔·罗宾斯。
