"in one's fifties"是英语中描述年龄阶段的常用短语,核心含义和用法如下:
表示“在某人五十多岁的时候”(具体指50岁到59岁之间的年龄段,不是恰好50岁)。
这是英语中“描述几十岁年龄段”的固定结构,公式为:
1、 结构要素:
必须用整十数的复数(如fifties、forties、thirties),不能用单数(in his fifty 是错误的);
"one's"要替换为指代具体人的物主代词或名词所有格(不能直接用"one's"本身,除非泛泛而谈)。
2、 常见扩展:
类似结构适用于所有“几十岁”的阶段,比如:
in one's teens:在某人十几岁时(13-19岁,注意“十几岁”用teens,不是tens);
in one's twenties:在某人二十多岁时(20-29岁);
in one's thirties:在某人三十多岁时(30-39岁);
in one's forties:在某人四十多岁时(40-49岁);
in one's sixties:在某人六十多岁时(60-69岁),依此类推。
My father started his own business in his fifties.
(我父亲五十多岁时开始自己创业。)
She became a best-selling author in her thirties.
(她三十多岁时成了畅销书作家。)
They met for the first time in their teens and got married ten years later.
(他们十几岁时第一次见面,十年后结婚了。)
in one's fifties:强调“五十多岁的区间”(50-59);
at the age of fifty:强调“恰好50岁”(具体年龄点);
when he was fifty:和"at the age of fifty"同义,指“当他50岁时”。
总结:"in one's fifties"是模糊年龄阶段的表达,用于描述某人在“五十几岁”的时间段内发生的事情,是英语中非常常用的年龄描述方式~