mean

1.mean用作“意欲”解，后面接不定式，不接动名词，如I mean to make his acquaintance里的to make不可改作making。

2.下面两句意思相同：

• He was meant for an engineer.
• He was meant to be an engineer.

这两句都有两个意思：“他被（他的父母等）使他成为一个工程师。”和“他天生有着成为一个工程师的才能。”

3.注意By that word I mean something different等句子里用by。

4.注意By that word is meant something different等句子里用by。也注意这里的主语something用在动词is meant的后面，By that word something different is meant也可以说，但不很合乎习惯。

5.说“（某词或某语）作什么解释？”该说What does...mean?例如：What does 'vitamin' mean?

6.mean有时有双宾语。例如：They mean us no harm.（他们并不想害我们。）

7.What do you mean?比How do you mean?普通。

8.I had meant to come, but was prevented by the bad weather比I meant to have come, but was prevented by the bad weather合理。

9.in the mean time跟in the meantime意思相同，也跟meantime（副词），meanwhile（副词），in the mean while和in the meanwhile意思相同。in the mean time现在不及in the meantime普通。in the mean while和in the meanwhile现在都不普通。meantime（副词）不及meanwhile普通。