本文將介紹 neglect, negligent, negligence, ignore, ignorant, ignorance, omit, omitted, omission. 用法及差異。
Neglect, Negligent, Negligence
neglect = to not give enough care or attention to people or things that are your responsibility = 疏忽失責。可以用來責怪他人，然而用來自責時特別好用，顯得相當 humble
- He neglects that poor dog – he never takes him for walks or gives him any attention. 他對那隻可憐的狗漠不關心——從不帶牠散步，也從不關心牠。
- She’s been neglecting her studies this semester. 她這個學期荒疏了自己的學業。
- He neglected to mention the fact that we could lose money on the deal. 他忘記提及我們做這筆交易可能會虧本。
- The judge said that the teacher had been negligent in allowing the children to swim in dangerous water. 法官說允許孩子們在危險水域游泳是教師失職。
- His injury was due to the negligence of his employers.
注意到這個字「被動」時，如上方影片中的 neglected children，意思會變成「被疏於照顧的」。
neglect 當名詞和 negligence 有什麼不同？從法律的角度來看，兩者的差異極大！基本上 neglect 是一種「故意」的 negligence。也就是說 negligence 是疏乎了自己的責任，而 neglect 當名詞時，指的是刻意疏乎自己的責任。很明顯 neglect 是嚴重觸法了，所以平常講話別不小心把 neglect 當名詞用了（文法雖對，但會被打！） reference: english.stackexchange.com
Ignore, Ignorant, Ignorance
ignore = to intentionally not listen or give attention to = 無視。這個字與 neglect 的差異在於有無「責任」。此外，因為 neglect 是失責的，所以正常來說意思是「疏乎」，然而 ignore 則是「刻意去無視」某件事情。舉例來說，筆者曾寫過：Please excuse my ignoring your message. => (X) 因為這麼寫好像筆者「刻意」去無視那段訊息。然而事實是筆者「有責任去注意卻未注意」，所以該改成：Please excuse my neglecting your message. => (O)
- She can be really irritating but I try to ignore her. 她有時會特別煩人，不過我盡量不去理會她。
- Safety regulations are being ignored by company managers in the drive to increase profits. 為了增加利潤，公司經理都對安全章程熟視無睹。
Ignorant/ignorance = not having enough knowledge, understanding, or information about something = 無知的/無知。注意到這個字它「意思大變」，與其動詞形態 ignore 的意思相差甚遠！可能是因為當我們去思考「為什麼某人一直無視某物」時，結論就是「無知」。
- Many teenagers are surprisingly ignorant about current politics. 許多青少年對時事政治無知得讓人吃驚。
- Public ignorance about the disease is still a cause for concern. 公眾對這個疾病的無知仍是一個令人擔憂的問題。
Omit, Omitted, Omission
omit = to fail to include or do something = 排除。雖然可能是「刻意」亦有可能是「不小心」，然而這個字只強調已經排除了、不存在了。
- She omitted to mention that she would be away next week. 她沒提及自己下星期不在這裡的事。
- She was omitted from the list of contributors to the report. 這篇報道的撰稿人中漏掉了她的名字。
- I omitted [=(more commonly) neglected] to mention that it was my fault. 可以看到字典裡的例句說，使用 neglect 更常見，這是因為 neglect 強調「我有責任去提」但是我沒有。而使用 omit 的話就只是描述一個沒有 mention 的客觀事實。