不定式作獨立成分·綜合用法

■so to speak可以說，可謂

The dog is, so to speak, a member of the family. 那狗可以說是家庭的一員了。

He is, so to speak, the brains of the organization. 他可說是這個機構的大腦。

■to be exact 精確地說

He’s in his mid-fifties; well, fifty-six to be exact. 他五十多歲；嗯，確切地說是五十六歲。

It happened late last century in 1995, to be exact. 事情發生在上個世紀末——準確地說，在1995年。

■to be sure 無可否認，誠然

He’s a nice person, to be sure. 肯定他是一個好人。

He is clever, to be sure, but not very hard-working. 他聰明是聰明，但是不怎么勤奮。

■to make matters [things] worse 更糟的是

To make matters worse, he refused to apologize. 更糟的是，他拒不道歉。

To make matters [things] worse, it started to snow when evening came. 更糟糕的是，夜幕降臨時，天開始下起雪來了。