怎樣用 though 才自然？

英美人士經常把 though 這個詞掛在嘴邊，但跟我們在書本上所學的用法卻有點不同，結果我們有時不明白怎樣用 though 才夠自然地道。

首先，一般文法書都會把 though 等同 although，用作連接詞，例如：

Although/Though it was raining hard, we went hiking.

上句是絕對正確無誤的，但問題是聽上去非常正式，基本上只出現於書面寫作。如果用 Even though 開頭，可以稍為降低正式的程度，不過對於英語人來說，仍然相當正式，因為他們平時說話其實很少把 though 放在開頭，相反會放在句尾，所以上句如果改為日常會話，自然一點的說法是：

It was raining hard. We went hiking though.

把 though 放在句尾，有點像我們廣東話的語尾助詞，例如上句用廣東話可以說成「係落咗好大場雨，但我地都照去行山囉」，那個 though 的作用就好像我們所講的「囉」，用來加強「明知落雨都照去」的語氣。

這種用法的 though 在 spoken English 很常用，再多舉幾個例子：

(written) Though the cake looks pretty, it tastes bad.

(spoken) The cake looks pretty. It tastes bad though.

(written) Although he earns a lot, he never seems happy.

(spoken) He earns a lot, but never seems happy though.

(written) I think she is Korean, though I am not very sure.

(spoken) I think she’s Korean. I’m not very sure, though.