學生易混淆字詞系列：Different、Diverse

有時候，如果學生查了字典後不看清楚例句，會有很大機會用錯詞語。筆者曾經也犯了這個毛病，誤以為這兩個字：different和diverse是可以互相取代。最近改作文時，我們發現一些學生也混淆了這兩個字。各位可以先試試以下題目：

1. I like reading and you like playing ball games. Our interests are (different / diverse). 
2. I like hiking, collecting stamps, singing and cooking. My interests are very (different / diverse).

我們一邊查MacMillan Dictionary [M]、Cambridge Dictionary [C] 和Oxford Dictionary [O]，一邊學學這兩個詞語吧。(例句多是取自MacMillan Dictionary)

Part One: Different
1. not the same as another person or thing, or not the same as before (與另一個人物或物件不同的；又或者自身出現改變，與原本的自己不同的)
Example One: I tried on lots of different hats.
Example Two: She has become a different person after the death of her parents. 

2. [only before noun] different things are separate things of the same kind (表示同類人物或物件中，不同的成員)
Example Three: Six different boys asked me to dance.

3. unusual and not like other things of the same kind (表示同類人物或物件中，與眾不同的成員)
Example Four: I wanted something a bit different, so I painted the room green.

Part Two: Diverse
1. very different from each other [M]; different or including many different types [C]; showing a great deal of variety [O] (表示各人物或物件存有很大差別，不過又同時包含在同一範圍內)
Example One: The newspaper aims to cover a diverse range of issues.[M]

2. including people from many different cultures or races (表示來自不同地方、有不同文化的人)
Example Two: a diverse workforce [M]
Example Three: New York is a very culturally/ ethnically diverse city. [C]
Example Four: subjects as diverse as architecture, language teaching, and the physical sciences [O]


Part Three: Different & Diverse
說了一整天，到底兩者的核心分別在哪裡?

雖然different和diverse都提到一個人物或物件與其他同類有差異，但是...

重點是：diverse是用來形容一個群體、類別等，而非個體成員，而且diverse同時間會強調各人物或物件共同存在於同一群體內。

結論：
如果你只是想帶出：  
1. A和B不同  
2. A不再一樣  
3. A和同類不一樣  
4. 成員之間都不一樣  
那麼你就要用different，因為以上4點都是形容個體成員。

如果你想帶出：  
1. 題材豐富、文化多樣等概念  
2. 群體之中有不一樣的成員  
那麼你就要會用diverse。