集合名詞 audience 的用法說明

■本站特約作者  陳根花

1. audience 是集合名詞，用作主語時，其謂語可用單數(視為整體)或復數(視為個體)。如：

The audience is [are] listening attentively. 聽眾都在聚精會神地聽著。

The audience was [were] enjoying every minute of the performance. 觀眾對演出非常欣賞。

The audience is [are] always very excited by a wonderful goal. 一個精彩的進球總會使觀眾們非常激動。

2. 由于audience 是集合名詞，所以 an audience 不是指“一個觀眾”，而是指某一群觀眾、某一個場次觀眾、某一方面的觀眾等。如：

She has never spoken to such a big audience before. 她以前從未向這么多人講過話。

He loves holding forth on any subject once he has an audience. 不管是什么問題，只要有人聽，他就愛大發議論。

同樣地，audiences 也不是指“多個觀眾”，而是指多群觀眾，多個場次觀眾，多個方面的觀眾等。

Entertaining audiences is the purpose of movies. 娛樂觀眾是電影的目的。

The show had to be taken off because of poor audiences. 因觀眾太少而取消演出。

She has addressed audiences all over the country. 她曾向全國各地的聽眾演講。

另外，audience作為集合名詞，原則上不能用它表示個體，但every audience是例外，當要強調每一名觀眾時，可以這樣用。如：

The pianist made a conquest of every audience for which she played. 這位鋼琴家以她的演奏征服了每一位聽眾。

3. 形容聽(觀)眾人數之多或少，通常用 big, large, huge, mass, vast, wide 以及small, thin 等形容詞修飾，但是不用 many, few 修飾。如：

There was a large audience of young people at the pop concert. 流行音樂演奏會上有大量青年聽眾。

Her lecture had a crowded audience. 她的演講擠滿了聽眾。

The speaker had a small (thin) but attentive audience. 這位演講者的聽眾不多(很少)，但很專心。(www.hz123456.com)

She felt nervous at having to sing before so large an audience [such a large audience]. 要在那么多觀眾面前唱歌她感到很緊張。

4.要具體表示觀眾的數量，可參考以下表達：

an audience of 10 000  1 萬名觀眾

There were at least three hundred people in the audience. 觀眾至少有300人。

We scraped together an audience of fifty for the play. 我們張羅來五十個觀眾看這出戲。 

The series has attracted an audience of more than 10 million. 這個系列片吸引了1,000多萬觀眾收看。

An audience of millions watched the royal wedding on TV. 數以百萬計的人們在電視上觀看皇家婚禮。

不過，有時它也可直接受數字(尤其是較大的數字)的修飾。如：

The prince was cheered by a 10000-strong audience. 1萬多名觀眾為王子歡呼。 

Three thousand audience crowded the concert hall. 3,000 名聽眾擠滿了音樂大廳。

若表示一名或幾名觀眾，通常可以借助 member 來表示。如：

a member of an audience 一名聽眾或觀眾

One member of the audience described the opera as “boring”. 有一名觀眾說這出歌劇“乏味”。

The offending comment was in fact a heckle from an audience member. 這番冒犯性的話實際上是一名觀眾的詰難。

After the concert, several members of the audience came up and congratulated her. 音樂會后，幾位聽眾走上來向她祝賀。

5.主要指收音機的“聽眾”，音樂會的“聽眾”，電視的“觀眾”，戲曲的“觀眾”等，若指看比賽(如足球賽)的“觀眾”，則用spectator。