英語翻譯中“年”的表達(dá),自然聯(lián)想到y(tǒng)ear,如：Ten years is a long time.I have been here two years today.英語翻譯中關(guān)于年的：如下：
1. 用表示季節(jié)的名詞來取代year，漢語有以“春秋”表示“年”的習(xí)慣，英語卻使用“夏”(summer)及“冬”（winter)。
如：This became clear to me two summers ago while I was walking with my 25-year-old son.兩年前,我和二十五歲的兒子一起散步時,終于明白了這一點(diǎn)。It happened many winters ago.此事發(fā)生在許多年之前。
2. 用表示人的生命發(fā)展期的名詞來取代year,generation（一代人）常用以表示三十年（左右）的時間，lifetime（一生）則表示“百年”。The automobile was introduced in America during the generation before World War I.汽車是在第一次世界大戰(zhàn)前二三十年引入美國的。Only a lifetime ago, parents waved farewell to their emigrating children,knowing they would never see them again.僅在百年之前,父母親們揮手向他們移居他國的孩子們告別，知道自己再也見不到他們了。
3. 用表示星體或自然現(xiàn)象的名詞取代year，如sun，snows等。The thoughts of men are widened with the process of the suns.人的思想隨著歲月的遷流而得以拓寬。又如：a thousand suns ago一千年前forty snows ago四十年前4. 有關(guān)十年、一百年及一千年的表達(dá)，英語中有便捷的固定說法。如：The construction of this railway lasted a decade.這條鐵路的修建為時十年之久。（decade還可以表示“數(shù)十年”的時間概念，如several decades)For the last three centuriles, Western civilization had dedicated a good part of its energies to the invention of machines and the extension of their operations into every corner of life.在最近的三百年中,西方文明國家致力于發(fā)明機(jī)器及將其使用范圍擴(kuò)大到生活的每個角落。The Christian Era is less than two millenniums old; the world is many millenniums old.公元還不到兩千年，而世界卻存在許多個千年了。（“一千年”英語表達(dá)的單數(shù)形式是millennium）
