ALONE, LONELY

INTRODUCTORY MATERIAL

Read and translate the following sentences paying special attention to the words in bold type.

1. But she had to do so much alone; to bathe alone, walk alone; sit alone at her dinner, once the child was in bed. She was not used to it. She had never been alone in her life. 2. There were a few moments of silence, a realisation that the family circle was alone with itself. 3. She was really quite alone in the world except for an invalid aunt in Bridlington. 4. See! I’m left all alone — the only time this whole evening. 5. Laugh and the world laughs with you, weep and you weep alone. 6. In spite of every difficulty Richard would take his walk alone. 7. Here, at a table, alone, sat Patsy Horan, proprietor of «The Vendome». 8. She (Mrs Skelton) might be looking for just such a situation as this, though — to find Gregory alone. 9. She didn’t mind that Phil was lonely or in need of her. It suited her better to live alone and follow her own pursuits in her selfish fashion. 10. Yet nothing stirred; except for the lonely figure beyond the herd there was no one in sight. 11. Tessa was too young to be any real company, so she would be very lonely. She hated being lonely. 12. Oh, Edmund, I’ve been so lonely. 13. And she was lonely. She was so lonely as the ship that throbbed her way through an unpeopled sea, and lonely as the friendless man who lay dying in the ship’s lazaret. 14. And so in an old Elizabethan inn facing a wild lonely stretch of the forest, near Brockenhurst, they stayed together that Sunday. 15. Here, the sea of Cambridgeshire lay too lonely under the stars. 16. Philippa walked in, meaning to pass a lonely evening by playing a modest game. 17. The way was lonely and tears blinded my eyes. 18. Anthony crept out of the house. He walked out of the town into the veld, choosing the loneliest route.

EXPLANATORY NOTES

Alone predic. adj. 1. (==by oneself) Without the company or help of others, e.g. to live ~, all ~. 2. Apart from anything or anyone else, e.g. We are not ~ in thinking that...; He is not ~ in his conclusions. 3. To leave (let) smb. or smth. ~, to abstain from touching, moving, interfering with, e.g. You had better leave that dog ~, it will bite you if you tease it.

Lonely adj. 1. Solitary; without companions; sad or melancholy because one lacks companions, sympathy, friendship, e.g. a ~ looking girl. 2. Standing apart from others of its kind; isolated; unfrequented; far from inhabited places or towns, e.g. a ~ house, a ~ moutain village, a ~ life.

The words alone (один, одинокий, в одиночестве, в одиночку, единственный) and lonely (одинокий; уединенный) agree in denoting «apart from others; by oneself or itself». The difference between them is as follows: alone lays stress on the objective fact of being entirely by oneself; lonely implies feeling oneself alone and longing for companionship; the word lonely is also applicable to places which are unfrequented.

Lonely can be used both predicatively and attributively, alone can’t be used attributively.