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Lina Chu 香港浸會大學語文中心
遲了交稅，稅務局的逾期繳稅附加費通知書有這樣一句話：
You appear not to have fully paid your tax by the due date.
中文的寫法是：
本局資料顯示你並未如期繳應付稅款。
為甚麼不乾脆說 “You have not fully paid your tax by the due date.”?
首先，原因可能是，局方對於你是否已經繳款一事並非絕對肯定。可能你已經繳付，因某些原因沒有收到，或者尚未記錄在案。用appear這樣的寫法留下一個迴旋餘地。
追稅時用 減繃硬感
不過重要的是，這是比較客氣的說法，不是一種硬繃繃、高高在上的姿態。
另一個與appear類似的字是seem。
The staff seemed to have been very careless with data protection.
職員看來並不小心保護資料。
報道的人雖然相當肯定這件事的真確性，但是不敢或者不願意說絕對肯定，為了留下迴旋餘地，就加上seemed to這個詞組。
有說法認為，用appear比較公式化，較為適合在公文內使用，而seem是比較平白的語氣，較少用於公文。
seem較少用於公文
至於造句方面，appear與seem有兩種句子構造方式。
第一種是appear/seem後加that副句。
It seems that the people affected by the disaster have pulled themselves together.
看來遭受這次災害的群眾已經振作起來。
It appears that inflation will continue rising in the near future.
通貨膨脹看來會在未來繼續上升。
後面加上to + infinitive
第二種句子結構是appear/seem後面加上to + infinitive。沿用前面兩句例子，可以改寫成：
The people affected by the disaster seem to have pulled themselves together.
Inflation appears to continue rising in the near future.
請留意一點。如果用that副句，句子的開首必須以It作為主語，即是It appears/seems that……
如果採用to + infinitive的句法，句子應以當事人或相關事項作為主語，直接入題，如The people seemed to ……或者 Inflation appears to ……
前面加would 語意更鬆動
我們還可以把話說得更鬆動，留下更大的迴旋餘地。做法是在appear或seem前面加上would。
The chairman would appear to have decided to quit.
看起來主席已經決定辭職。
It would seem that the company has decided to dismiss the chairman.
看起來這家公司已經決定罷免主席。
說話應該多留些迴旋餘地，自己不太肯定的時候，不要把話說死了，就是明顯的事實，亦可把話說得有禮些。
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