和老外談家庭,親戚的英語口語

我曾被叫做“掛鑰匙兒童”。
I was a so-called latchkey kid.

【解說】So-called 意為號稱、所謂的，如He’s a so-called Christian, but he neverseems to go to church. （他號稱是基督教徒，可是很少看到他去教堂）我爸爸把家庭放在第一位。
My father puts family before everything else.

【解說】請記住put A before B (把A 放在B 之前)這種表達方式。如He puts his work before his family. （他重視工作甚於家庭）。He puts quantity before quality.
（他重視數量甚於質量）。照顧爺爺是件很辛苦的事。
Taking care of my grandfather is a lot of work.

【解說】照顧（小孩或者病人）一般使用take care of ~,也可以表示負責作～。如I’ll take care of buying food.(我負責購買食物)。我們和親戚之間不大走動。
We don’t have much to do with our relatives.

【解說】Don’t have much to do with ～表示與與～不達有關係，do with ~ 此處意為be connected with ~（與～有關係）have something to do with ~表示與～多少有點兒關係，have nothing to do with ~ 表示與～毫無關係。新年那天，所有親戚都聚集在我家裡。
On New Year’s Day, all the relatives get together at my house.

【解說】Get together 集合也可以用have a reunion 來表示，後者多用來表示沒有什麼特別節目的聚會。