在编辑工作中，笔者发现一些国内作者用英语表达我们汉语中的“倍数”时容易出错，例如，将“这个样品的体积是那个样品的5倍”译成“The volume of this sample is five times bigger than that one”。如果把该译文再翻译成汉语的话，那就是“这个样品的体积比那个样品大5倍”。

显然，上面的英译是不正确的，作者把“**是**的多少倍”与“**比**大多少倍”混淆了。

实际上，“这个样品的体积是那个样品的5倍”的正确英译应为以下几种形式：

The volume of this sample is five times that one.

This sample is five times the volume of that one.

The volume of this sample is five times as big as that one.

The volume of this sample is four times bigger than that one.

如果**是**的2或两倍，那么用“twice”就更地道了，如American workers were paid on average twice as much as workers in China.

又如，

例一：我们都知道，上海市的人口为2400多万，而我们西安市只有600多万，这就意味着“上海的人口是西安的4倍”或“上海人口比西安多3倍”。我们可用以下几种译文形式来表达同样的含义：

The population of Shanghai is four times that of Xi’an.

The population of Shanghai is four times as large as that of Xi’an.

Shanghai is four times the population of Xi’an.

The population of Shanghai is three times larger than that of Xi’an.

例二：“研究已证实，煤层气中的CH₄也是一种温室气体，其对全球气候变化影响的相对能力是同量二氧化碳的21倍，对臭氧的破坏能力是同量CO₂的7倍”可译成：

The research has shown that CH₄in CBM is also a kind of greenhouse gas.The relative contribution of the CH₄to global warming is 21 times that of equivalent carbon dioxide, and its destructive capacity for ozone layer is 7 times that of equivalent CO₂.

当然，也可以“The research has shown that CH₄in CBM is also a kind of greenhouse gas. The relative contribution of the CH₄to global warming is 21 times as great as that of equivalent carbon dioxide, and its destructive capacity for ozone layer is 7 times as great as that of equivalent CO₂”

或以“The research has shown that CH₄in CBM is also a kind of greenhouse gas. The relative contribution of the CH₄to global warming is 20 times greater than that of equivalent carbon dioxide, and its destructive capacity for ozone layer is 6 times greater than that of equivalent CO₂”来表达同样的意思。