開年度業務檢討會議時,Jason的外籍老闆說:“If we lose any more money, we won't be able to balance the books this year.” Jason很疑惑,不知怎麼回答,老闆是在叫大家看什麼書嗎?

其實balance the books是一個常見商業片語,今天就一起來看看balance這個字,在商業場景如何應用吧!

If we lose any more money,
we won't be able to balance the books this year.

(X)要是公司繼續虧損,不如大家在家讀讀書吧!
)要是公司繼續虧損,我們今年將難以達到收支平衡。

我們使用balance這個字時,較常見的字義是「平衡」或「餘額」,但在這個例句裡是動詞用法,就是「平衡」。Book除了書之外,也有「帳冊」之意,作帳冊時要用複數型態。這用法大家比較陌生,來看一例:

At the end of the year, the accountant goes over the books.
(年終時會計要覆核公司的帳冊。)

balance the books,意思其實是「收支平衡」。多看一例句熟悉用法:

The company reduced its advertising budget by 25% in order to balance the books. (為了平衡收支,公司裁減25%的廣告預算。)

I am carrying a balance.

(X)我身體平衡度很好。
)我還欠著卡債。

carry是「攜帶、扛著」的意思,balance是「餘額」。還攜帶著餘額,就是「還沒繳清卡費」。如果繳清了,我們會用pay it off。

來看看用法:

If you only pay the minimum, you'll be carrying a balance. And you'll be charged interest on that balance.
(如果你只繳最低額度,那餘額將會收取利息。)

on balance / In balance / in the balance

接下來來看3組容易混淆的片語。

on balance 大致上/權衡利弊之後

on balance是個好用的片語,平衡其實就是左右兩邊都顧慮到。用於經過一番思考後做的結論:

I would say that, on balance, it hasn't been a bad year.
(大體說來,我認為今年還不錯。)

The job offer had some advantages, but on balance he thought he was better off where he was.
(這工作機會確實提供了有利條件,但權衡後,他覺得現在的工作反而更好。)

in balance 收支平衡

in balance這個片語比較單純,也很常見,就是收支平衡:

We want to cut the budget to get it in balance by next year.
(我們想要削減預算以求在明年達到收支平衡。)

in the balance 懸而不決;結果未定

加了一個the,in the balance就不是收支平衡,而是指「還在尋找平衡狀態」,常指「發展到關鍵性階段或緊要關頭,但結果還未知」。這個片語常和動詞hang搭配:

The game hung in the balance until the last minute.
(比賽僵持不下,直到最後一分鐘才分出勝負。)

The fate of the project hangs in the balance.
(這案子命運懸而未決。)

責任編輯:倪旻勤
核稿編輯:陳瑋鴻