这部分的错误是因为中文直译所引起的普遍的句法错误。很明显，中文和英文的句法和词序有许多不同，因此，当中国学生用汉语的思路去思考并且直接译成英文时，就会出现错误。这里列出了很多诸如此类的错误。我们先给出中文句子和错误的英文翻译，以便读者能看到这两种句型的类似点，找到产生错误的根本原因。

Example 13:

“to make”和“to let”（使／让）

学生们经常混淆“to make”和“to let”的用法．这里让我们先弄清它们的区别之一，以便正确地使用．下面的两个例子十分相象，我们要找出它们的区别所在。

Students often confuse the verbs“to make”and “to let”. Here we clear up one of the many problems in distinguishing these two words and using them correctly. Let’s look at two nearly identical sentences，and see where the distinction lies.

“When Brian was little，his parents made him wash the dishes every night after dinner.”

“When Lisa was little，her parents let her wash the dishes every night after dinner.”

这两个句子有何不同呢？在第一句中，“made”相当于“forced”，也就是说Brian并不是真心实意地想洗碗，但是他的父母吩咐他去洗，或许是教会他懂得劳动的价值。在第二句中，“let”相当于“permitted”或“allowed”，

也就是说，Lisa 很乐意洗碗，而她的父母并不阻止她，也许Lisa 是个懂事的孩子，愿为父母分担家务。

再看其他几个例子：

“How are these two sentences different？In the first sentence，"made" means "forced".In other words，Brian did not really want to do the dishes，but his parents forced him to wash them，perhaps to teach him the value of labor.

In the second sentence，"let" means "permitted" or "allowed". In other words，Lisa wanted to do the dishes，and her parents did not stop her, but instead allowed her to do the dishes. Lisa perhaps was a good-natured child looking to assist her parents. Let’s look at some other examples：

”My boss made me work all day without a break. I’m exhausted. “ (I didn’t really want to work all day; I had to. 工作了一天,真不请愿,可又不得不)

”my boss let me leave work early today because we worked so hard yesterday. “ (I was happy to get off work early . 提前下班对我来说很开心)

”The officers in the military often make the soldiers do hard labor and tough training. The officers also don’t let the soldiers go out at night. “

”The elementary school teacher made the students stay after school because they were naughty. “

"We really like our new math instructor because she lets us eat the classroom."