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Hello! This week on Ask a Teacher, we answer a question from David in China.
你好！本周《名师答疑》，我们回答来自中国的大卫提出的问题。
Hello, my name is David, and I am from China.
你好，我叫大卫，我来自中国。
Here comes a sentence “My mother had a sweet singing voice when she was younger”.
这里有一句话：“我母亲年轻时歌声很甜美。”
My question is that whether we can use “young” instead “younger” or not?
我的问题是，我们是否可以用young代替younger？
I am looking forward to receiving your reply.
期待收到您的回复。
Thank you very much. David.
非常感谢。大卫。
Thank you for writing, David.
谢谢你的来信，大卫。
This is a good question.
这是一个好问题。
The short answer is yes.
简短的答案是“可以”。
You can use “young” instead of “younger.”
你可以用young而不是younger。
But using “young” instead of “younger” does change the meaning of the sentence just a bit.
但使用young而不是younger确实稍微改变了句子的含义。
Let’s look at the differences between the two choices.
让我们看看这两种选择之间的区别。
“Young” and “younger” are both adjectives.
young和younger都是形容词。
Adjectives are words that describe nouns.
形容词是描述名词的词。
“Younger” is a comparative adjective.
“更年轻”是一个比较级形容词。
Comparative adjectives are used to compare two people or things.
比较级形容词用于比较两个人或两个事物。
Comparative adjectives are easy to recognize because they often have an “-er” ending.
比较级形容词很容易识别，因为它们通常以-er结尾。
They are also often, but not always, followed by the conjunction “than.”
它们也经常，但并不总是，后面跟着连词than。
Let’s look again at David’s original example sentence:
让我们再来看看大卫给的原句：
My mother had a sweet singing voice when she was younger.
我母亲更年轻的时候有一副甜美的歌喉。
In this situation, “younger” is describing “mother.”
在这种情况下，“更年轻”形容的是“母亲”。
But it is not so clear what is being compared.
但不清楚比较的对象是什么。
That is because we sometimes leave out information from a sentence.
这是因为我们有时会省略句子中的信息。
Even without the extra information, however, the listener or reader is still likely to understand the full thought or meaning.
然而，即使没有额外的信息，听者或读者仍然有可能理解完整的思想或意思。
As readers, we understand the full meaning of David’s sentence to be:
作为读者，我们知道大卫这句话的完整含义：
My mother had a sweet singing voice when she was younger than she is now.
我母亲在她比现在更年轻的时候有一副甜美的歌喉。
We do not know how old the mother is now.
我们不知道这位母亲现在多大了。
But we know she had a sweet singing voice when she was younger than her current age.
但我们知道，当她比现在的年龄更小的时候，她有一副甜美的歌喉。
Let’s say, for example, that the writer’s mother is 60 years old.
比方说，假设作者的母亲60岁。
The writer of the sentence could mean that his mother had a sweet singing voice when she was 40 years old, for example.
那么这句话的作者可能在说他的母亲在（比如）40岁时有一副甜美的歌喉。
Or the writer could mean that his mother had a sweet singing voice when she was 15 years old.
或者，这位作者的意思也可能是他的母亲在15岁时有一副甜美的歌喉。
Both 15 years old and 40 years old are younger than 60.
15岁和40岁都比60岁更年轻。
Now let’s consider how the sentence’s meaning might change if we were to use “young” instead of “younger.”
现在让我们想一下，如果用young而不是younger，这个句子的意思可能会发生怎样的变化。
The sentence would be: My mother had a sweet singing voice when she was young.
这句话就变成：我母亲年轻的时候有一副甜美的歌喉。
The meaning has changed just a bit.
意思只有一点点变化。
Now it is clear that the writer means his mother had a sweet singing voice when she was a young person, or in her youth.
现在很明显，作者的意思是他的母亲还是年轻人，或者说在青年时期时，有一副甜美的歌喉。
We hope this explanation has helped you, David.
我们希望这个解释对你有所帮助，大卫。
And that’s Ask a Teacher.
以上就是《名师答疑》。
I’m Gena Bennett.
我是吉娜 · 贝内特。
