“be confined to”是一个常用的英语短语,核心含义是“仅限于;被限制在……范围内”,强调“将某人/某物约束在特定的界限、空间或范畴内,不允许超出”。
表示被动限制(主语是被限制的对象),可用于描述:
物理空间的限制(如“被关在房间里”“卧床”);
抽象范围的限制(如“话题、时间、人群、效果等”)。
“be confined to”中的“to”是介词,因此后面需接名词、代词或动名词(不能接动词原形)。
表示“被限制在某个具体的空间内”,常搭配地点名词:
The patient is confined to bed (because of a broken leg).
(病人因腿骨折只能卧床。)
During the quarantine, we were confined to our apartment for two weeks.
(隔离期间,我们被限制在公寓里两周。)
He’s confined to a wheelchair due to a spinal injury.
(他因脊椎损伤只能坐轮椅。)
表示“仅限于某一抽象范畴,不扩展到其他”:
The discussion was confined to environmental issues—we didn’t talk about politics.
(讨论仅限于环境问题,我们没谈政治。)
Please confine your questions to the topic of today’s lecture.
(请把问题限制在今天讲座的主题内。)
This discount is confined to regular customers only.
(此折扣仅限老客户享受。)
表示“作用或影响仅存在于某段时间内”:
The pain relief from this medicine is confined to the first 6 hours.
(这种药的止痛效果仅限于最初6小时。)
短语的主动结构是“confine sb./sth. to sth.”(将某人/某物限制在……),被动则是“be confined to”:
The teacher confined the noisy students to the classroom after class.
(老师课后把吵闹的学生限制在教室里。)→ 被动:The noisy students were confined to the classroom.
be confined to:强调“限制在某范围/空间内”(被动);
confine oneself to:主动表示“自我限制在……”(如“I’ll confine myself to three main points in my speech.” 我的演讲将仅限三个要点。);
be limited to:侧重“数量、程度的限制”(如“The number of tickets is limited to 100.” 门票数量限制在100张。),与“be confined to”含义相近,但“confine”更强调“边界感”(不允许越界)。
“be confined to”是被动限制的表达,核心是“被约束在某个明确的范围里”,后接介词宾语(名词/代词/动名词)。记住常见搭配(如be confined to bed/wheelchair)和语境,就能灵活使用啦!