good for還是good to?

■本站特約作者 劉永科

學生問：有一次見到一本教輔書上講，像useful, important, necessary這些詞一樣，good之后用介詞to或for沒有區別，可以互換。請問老師，這樣說對嗎？　　

這種說法是不對的。因為good有不同的含義，所使用的介詞也不盡相同，而且to和for的意思也有差別。good在句中用作表語時，接for可表示“有益的；有效的；合適的；勝任的”，此外good for還有“付得起，價值是”之意。接to可表示“對......友善的，友好可親的”，偶爾也表示“對......益處”的意思。

下面，我們先看一個英語幽默故事：

A man was troubled by mice. They ran about all over his house at night. In the daytime, they just stayed under the floor.

The man thought, “What I need is a cat, a good cat that can catch mice.” He knew of a man who had cats for sale. So he went to see him. “Do you have a cat that is good for the mice?” he asked the man. “Well, yes. I do happen to have a cat that is good to the mice,” replied the man. “I’ll take it,” said the first man.

He paid for the cat and took it home. A week later, the cat didn’t catch any mice, but it played with them like old friends. So the man went back again with the cat under his arm. They had a quarrel because they both took the meaning of “good” as they needed.

上面的故事十分有趣。買貓人是想買一個good for mice的貓，然而，那個賣貓人有一個good to mice的貓，最后結果必然是一場quarrel。

下面，我們分析一下故事中的兩個關鍵句子：

“Do you have a cat that is good for the mice?”“你這兒有沒有善于捉鼠的貓？”

“I do happen to have a cat that is good to the mice.” “碰巧我還真有一只對老鼠不錯的貓。”

good表示“適合，有效，勝任”意思時，用be good for；good表示“仁慈，善良”意思時，用be good to。只有表示“對......有益處”時，兩者可以互換。試比較：

1.老太太對那些男孩子和藹可親。

The old lady is good to the boys.（正確）

The old lady is good for the boys.（錯誤）

2.這藥對該疾病有效果。

The medicine is good to the disease.（錯誤）

The medicine is good for the disease.（正確）

3.這條金鏈剛好與吉姆的手表相匹配。

The gold chain was just good to Jim's watch.（錯誤）

The gold chain was just good for Jim's watch.（正確）

4.約翰不適合這項工作。

John is not good to the job.（錯誤）

John is not good for the job.（正確）

5.體育運動有益健康。

Athletic sports are good to your health. （正確）

Athletic sports are good for your health. （正確）

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