话说steal和rob是偷盗还是抢劫？

　　Steal是‘偷盗’, rob是‘抢劫’，这谁不知道啊？可是许多中国学习者并不知道其实两者的意思是相混的甚至是相通的，steal还可以意为‘抢劫’, rob还可以意为‘偷盗’。

　　rob可以意为‘偷盗’，请看《朗文当代英语辞典》第4版Rob条：Rob: to steal money or property from a person, bank, etc.

例句见Martin Hewings’ ADVANCED GRAMMAR IN USE (2004 edition, CD-ROM, 98):

I needed my credit card to pay for the tickets, and it was when I reached for my wallet that I discovered I had been robbed. （译文：我需要我的信用卡付票款，正是在我伸手取钱包时我才发觉我被扒窃了（不可以翻译为“我被抢劫了”。）

      steal可以意为‘抢劫’, 先看《麦克米伦高阶英语辞典》释义：
Steal：to take something that belongs to someone else without permission

例句见《麦克米伦高阶英语辞典》stick up：

Stick 'em up：AmE spoken  if someone with a gun tells you to stick‘em up，they are ordering you to raise your arms above your head，usually because they are going to steal money or goods from you。

译文：把手举起来！（美国口语）如果有人拿着枪叫你举起手来，他们是正在命令你把手举到头顶上，通常因为他们要抢你的钱或货物。

CAMBRIDGE ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN USE, 2ND EDITION, UNIT 96 C:

The police never found the money stolen in the robbery.

又：

      McGraw-Hill Social Studies：Understanding the United States（《社会学习：理解美国》美国小学教科书）（1979）p72：

In the 1400s，the trade routes were over land. It took many months, and even years, to carry goods over mountains, deserts, and plains. The goods were often damaged along the way or stolen by robbers. Nations in Europe wanted to find better trade routes by sea.

在15世纪，贸易是通过陆上路线。运输货物跨越高山，沙漠和平原得花好几个月，甚至几年。货物在途中经常被损坏或被强盗抢劫。欧洲国家想要找到更好的海上贸易路线。

有趣的是，谷歌上搜索图书的结果：

robbed by thieves  11400

robbed by robbers     50

就我们学习英语来说，重要的是正确地搭配：

steal something from sb, a shop, etc ( steal 后接所偷或抢劫的东西）；
rob sb, a shop, a bank, etc of sth (rob后接被偷或抢劫的人或商店银行等）。

Morton S Freeman 的 THE WORDWATCHER'S GUIDE TO GOOD WRITING AND GRAMMAR （1990）里说：

The thing to remember is that a person or place is robbed. What was taken was stolen, not robbed. A thief does not rob money from a bank. He robs the bank of its money.


就汉语来说，重要的是看是公开用暴力或威胁者是‘抢劫’；是暗地里不用暴力或威胁者是‘偷盗’

(注：本人曾经把本文发表在《人教论坛》上：http://bbs.pep.com.cn/thread-410249-1-1.html 。现在重新发表在博客里，并且加上汉语译文。）

更多引文：

ENGLISH VOCABULARY IN USE UPPER-INTERMEDIATE WITH ANSWERS:

The object of the verb rob is the person or place from which things are stolen, e.g. l was robbed last night. A masked man robbed the bank.