Abstract:English nouns are one of the most important categories of words. They infer to people, things or abstract concepts. English nouns can be divided into countable and uncountable nouns. When we come to nouns, plural forms of nouns are often taken into account. When some plural nouns are translated, the change of their meanings is often neglected. In English there are a great number of nouns, when they are translated to English, their plural forms’ meanings are quite different from that of the singular forms. If we do not pay much attention to this, we may make mistakes.
The thesis focuses on the translation of the alternative meanings in plural nouns and listing some nouns that we often make mistakes when they are transformed into plural forms, hoping that it can be helpful to the translators.
Key words: plural nouns; alternative meaning; translation
中文摘要:在英语中, 名词是最重要的词类之一, 它可表示人、事物和抽象概念。名词有单复数之分, 提到名词经常会涉及到名词的复数。在翻译某些英语名词复数时, 会忽略名词复数变义的问题。在英语中有很多名词由单数形式变成复数形式时词义发生了变化, 在翻译中稍不注意就会出现错误。
本文重在研究英语名词复数变义的翻译并列举一些容易译错的名词,希望对翻译工作者有帮助。
关键词：英语名词复数；词义变化; 翻译
