“attain”“obtain”傻傻分不清楚？看了你就明白了

attain

Attain is a verb that means to accomplish, reach, or achieve something through effort. You can attain a goal that you set for yourself or attain a high-ranking position at your job.

Attain是一個動詞，意思是通過努力完成或達到某事。你可以attain一個你為自己設(shè)定的目標(biāo)，或者在工作中attain一個高職位。

For example,

● After six months, I attained my goal of losing 15 pounds.

六個月后，我達到了減掉15磅的目標(biāo)。

● Joe worked so hard he attained the position of Vice President.

喬工作很努力，因此獲得了副總裁的職位。

As you can see, attain clearly has to do with the effort and labor that is put into an objective.

你可以看出來，attain非常明確的需要你投入努力或勞動。

obtain

Obtain is also a verb, but it means to get, to acquire, or to gain possession of something.

obtain也是一個動詞，但是它的意思是得到，獲取或者獲得某物的所有權(quán)。

For example,

● I obtained the latest copy of The Wall Street Journal.

我拿到了最新一期的《華爾街日報》。

● The robbers obtained weapons to commit the crime.

強盜們獲得了作案的武器。

● Police obtained a warrant to search the house.

警方獲得搜查這所房子的搜查令。

While attain implies there was some effort put forth to produce an outcome, that is not necessarily the case with obtain. Take our example above, and suppose you obtained the latest Wall Street Journal. You could have found it on the side of the street or picked up a free copy at a local diner. There is nothing about obtain that implies a level of difficulty.

“attain”意味著付出了一些努力來產(chǎn)生一個結(jié)果，但“obtain”并不一定如此。以上面的例子為例，假設(shè)你獲得了最新的《華爾街日報》。你可以在路邊找到這本書，也可以在當(dāng)?shù)氐牟宛^里得到一本免費的。obtain并沒有困難的含義。

There is, however, a fine line between these two words, especially when you attain something that is, itself, closely related to the item that is being obtained.

然而，這兩個詞之間有一條微妙的界限，尤其是當(dāng)你attain某種東西，而它本身又與obtain的東西密切相關(guān)時。

For example,

● In college you work hard to attain a degree.

在大學(xué)里，你通過努力學(xué)習(xí)獲得學(xué)位。

-but-

但是

● Once you graduate you will obtain your diploma.

你一畢業(yè)就能拿到畢業(yè)證書。

This is a very subtle difference, but it is important to recognize it. In this example you are working hard to attain your academic degree, a B.A., B.S., M.A., Ph.D., etc., but you physically obtain and take ownership of the piece of paper that is your diploma once you graduate.

這是一個非常細微的差別，但重要的是要認識到在這個例子中，你正在努力學(xué)習(xí)以獲得(attain)學(xué)士學(xué)位,學(xué)士,碩士等等...但是，一旦你畢業(yè)，你就可以實際獲得(obtain)并擁有你的畢業(yè)證書這張紙。

Similarly, many countries are working to attain nuclear technology, but the nuclear weapons themselves can only be obtained.

類似的，許多國家正在努力attain核技術(shù)，但核武器本身只能obtain。

A good way to keep these two words a part from each other is to remember that “to attain something” is to achieve or accomplish something. Achieve and Accomplish both start with A’s and both involve working to see a goal fulfilled.

記住這兩個詞的區(qū)別，最重要的是記住attain是需要努力完成的。Achieve(取得)和Accomplish(完成)的首字母都是a，attain里也有a。