bilingual
bilingual — 形容詞
1. able to speak, read, and write two languages with roughly the same skill, often
雙語的
能流利使用兩種語言的（人）
able to speak, read, and write two languages with roughly the same skill, often because you grew up hearing both at home or school.
Greta is bilingual in Spanish and English because her mother spoke only Spanish at home.
Greta 從小媽媽只跟她說西班牙語，所以她是西班牙語和英語雙語的。
bilingual in [language] and [language]
The hospital wants to hire bilingual nurses who can speak with Vietnamese patients in their own language.
醫院想聘請會講越南語的雙語護理師，方便和越南病患溝通。
bilingual + noun (job-applicant context)
Farouk grew up in Montreal, so he has been bilingual since he started kindergarten.
Farouk 在蒙特婁長大，從上幼稚園起就是雙語使用者。
Many bilingual children switch between Mandarin and English in the same sentence without thinking.
許多雙語小孩在同一句話裡會自然地中英文交替使用。
Ravi says being bilingual helped him find a job at the airport check-in desk.
Ravi 說，會雙語讓他順利在機場報到櫃檯找到工作。
- multilingual
broader — speaking three or more languages
- fluent in two languages
longer paraphrase, no implication of childhood acquisition
- monolingual
able to use only one language
文法句型
bilingual in [language] and [language]
用法筆記
Subject is normally a person (or a person-noun like 'staff', 'nurse', 'child'). For a place or product that uses two languages, use sense 2 or 3.
常見錯誤
2. describing a country, city, school, or community where two languages are regular
雙語並用的
通行兩種語言的地區或團體
describing a country, city, school, or community where two languages are regularly spoken in daily life and official settings.
Brussels is a bilingual city where street signs appear in both French and Dutch.
布魯塞爾是雙語並用的城市，路標同時標示法文和荷蘭文。
bilingual + place noun
The Watanabe twins attend a bilingual school that teaches half the lessons in Japanese.
Watanabe 家的雙胞胎讀的是有一半課程用日語上課的雙語學校。
Canada is officially bilingual, so federal workers must reply to citizens in English or French.
加拿大在官方層級實行雙語制度，聯邦公務員必須以英文或法文回覆民眾。
Our small town has a bilingual community of farmers who use Welsh at home and English at the market.
我們小鎮有一個雙語社區，農夫們在家說威爾斯語，到市場則改說英語。
- dual-language
common in school and policy writing
- two-language
rare, mostly attributive ('a two-language society')
- monolingual
of a place or group using only one language
用法筆記
Distinguish from sense 1: here the subject is a place, institution, or group, not an individual person. Often appears with 'officially', 'fully', or 'truly' before the adjective.
常見錯誤
3. describing a book, sign, app, or document whose content appears in two languages
雙語對照的
內容以兩種語言並陳的書或標示
describing a book, sign, app, or document whose content appears in two languages side by side, so readers can compare or choose between them.
I bought a bilingual edition of the poems with French on the left page and English on the right.
我買了一本雙語對照的詩集，左頁是法文、右頁是英文。
bilingual edition (typical collocation)
The museum prints bilingual labels under each painting for tourists from Korea and the United States.
博物館在每幅畫作下方都印有雙語標籤，方便韓國和美國遊客閱讀。
bilingual labels / signs (text artifact)
Our team built a bilingual app that lets shoppers switch between Thai and English with one tap.
我們團隊做了一個雙語 App，購物者一鍵就能在泰文和英文之間切換。
Kalani wrote a bilingual storybook so her children could read the same tale in both their languages.
Kalani 寫了一本雙語故事書，讓孩子可以用兩種母語讀同一個故事。
- dual-language
more technical, common in publishing and software
- parallel-text
specifically for translations shown side by side
- monolingual
of a text or product in only one language
用法筆記
Subject is an object or piece of content (book, sign, menu, website), not a person or place. Frequently attributive: 'bilingual menu', 'bilingual edition'.
常見錯誤
bilingual — 名詞
1. someone who can use two languages with about the same ease, especially in everyd
雙語人士
能流利使用兩種語言的人
someone who can use two languages with about the same ease, especially in everyday talk as well as in reading and writing.
The research team interviewed thirty bilinguals who grew up in Singapore speaking Mandarin and English.
研究團隊訪談了三十位在新加坡長大、會講中文和英語的雙語人士。
plural noun: bilinguals as research subjects
As a bilingual, Diego often dreams in Spanish but writes his shopping list in English.
身為雙語人士，Diego 常用西班牙語做夢，購物清單卻寫英文。
as a bilingual (descriptor of a person)
The agency only hires bilinguals to translate phone calls between doctors and Vietnamese patients.
這家機構只聘請雙語人士為醫師和越南病患做電話口譯。
Some bilinguals say they feel like a slightly different person in each of their two languages.
有些雙語人士說，自己在兩種語言裡好像是稍微不同的人。
- polyglot
informal, usually for someone who speaks several languages, not just two
- dual-language speaker
longer descriptive phrase, plain-English alternative
- monolingual
a person who speaks only one language
文法句型
a bilingual
用法筆記
More common in academic and journalistic writing than in everyday speech, where 'someone who speaks two languages' is preferred. Often plural ('bilinguals') in research contexts.