这个标题的目的是把你骗进来，今天和大家分享的是一个句子。

Donald Trump会不会赢我也不知道, 目前这事还没人敢打保票吧。《经济学人》最新的一篇文章讨论了这件事:

阅读原文: http://dwz.cn/2OMixt

全文写的是共和党这边就剩下三匹马了，Donald Trump可以说是稳操胜券了。最后两句话是这样:

“If the current polling trends hold through March 15, Mr Trump will be the only candidate left who could plausibly win the nomination outright. It is now Mr Trump’s game to lose.”

“It is now Mr Trump’s game to lose.” 是什么意思？ 是说他要输了吗？这不是和前面说他稳操胜券所矛盾吗？

之前写过一篇文章“你需要的或许只是好好查查字典”，这个 “one’s game to lose”恐怕是靠查字典是解决不了的。字典有“死字典”也有“活字典” — 就是网络上的互相帮助。之前提到过Quora, WordReference Forum之类的网站可以帮助我们。

http://english.stackexchange.com

很多时候是我们不习惯这种表达方式 — 对native speaker来说是显而易见的意思到我们这里就有了困难，脑袋里转不过来这个弯儿。对于这样的问题我们要把它弄清楚。

It's his game to lose,“ which means he is a better player than his opponent, so he can't lose if he plays normally, but if he plays poorly, he will lose.

"It means that someone is winning by so much, that the only way he could lose at that point would be if he defeated himself, i.e. by 'choking' or 'dropping the ball.'”

“It is now Mr Trump’s game to lose.“这句话大概是说：“只要川普不自己作死的话，他应该不会丢掉目前领先的地位。” “川普要是输的话也是输给了自己。”

如果还没“转过这个弯儿来的话”，看下面这位朋友的解释：

Assume you and I were trying to get an apple, and you had gotten it. It's your apple to lose now, because you already have it, and thus you can lose it. I can't lose the apple since I don't have it, although I could lose the contest as a whole.

这个句子的变形也有"one's job to lose" "yours to lose"等:

The phrase “yours to lose” means nearly the same thing as “yours to win”. These phrases mean that whether you win or lose depends on your actions, and not on circumstances beyond your control.

也就是说，尽管结果还没有出来，以目前的情况来看，我们得出“Trump稳操胜券了”(foregone conclusion), 只要自己不出乱子，一路领先是没有什么问题的。

有些朋友问“这个用法怎么这么别扭”，我觉得是我们见的太少了。多读多查，就不会这么“大惊小怪”了。英文语言也有趣在这里 — 若是太规矩了，就没了那点“动若脱兔”。

如果你有这些“疑难杂症”的话，欢迎你留言给我。我不一定有能力把它解决掉，但是我愿意和你一起找那个答案。