ashamed, shameful, shameless 的用法辨析

一、ashamed 的用法

ashamed 的意思是“感到羞耻的”，主要用于形容人。如：

He is ashamed of his failure [having failed]. 他对自己的失败感到羞惭。

I’m not ashamed of her. If anything, I’m proud. 我并不为她感到羞耻，相反，我还为她感到骄傲。

I’m ashamed of him. 我为他感到羞愧。

I’m ashamed for him. 我替他感到羞愧。

You should be ashamd of your behavior. 你应该为你的行为感到羞愧。

He was ashamed at being unable to give an answer. 他因不能回答而感到惭愧。

Inside, she felt ashamed about being a failure. 她内心为事业失利而感到羞愧。

I’m ashamed of myself for being so stupid. 我因自己这么愚蠢而感到害羞。

She was ashamed to tell her husband that she had lied. 她很害羞不敢告诉丈夫她撒了谎。

补充说明：

1. 许多以a-开头的表语形容词，通常要用much或very much修饰，而不用very修饰，但ashamed 是个例外，它可随意地受very修饰：

I behaved badly yesterday and still feel very ashamed of myself. 我昨天失礼了，至今我仍感到羞愧。

2.后接不定式，通常表示由于羞耻或惭愧而不愿做某事或不好意思做某事：

I’d be ashamed to take his money. 我不好意思拿他的钱。

Her room was in such a litter that she was ashamed to ask me in. 她的房间十分杂乱，她不好意思请我进去。

3. 表示对已做的事感到羞愧，其后通常接 of doing sth或of oneself for doing sth：

You should be ashamed of lying to him.=You should be ashamed of yourself for lying to him. 你应当为对他说谎而感到羞耻。

有时也可接不定式的完成式of having done sth：

He was ashamed of asking [having asked] such a simple question. 问了一个这么简单的问题，他感到很难为情。

相关谚语：

Poverty is not a shame, but the being ashamed of it is. 贫非耻，耻贫乃耻。

The more things a man is ashamed of the more respectable he is. 一个人引以为耻的事情越多，就越可尊敬。

He who is afraid of asking is ashamed of learning. 害怕问者耻于学。

二、shameful的用法

shameful 的意思是“可耻的”“丢脸的”“不体面的”，主要用于事物。如：

I hate such shameful conduct. 我憎恨那样的可耻行为。

I couldn’t see anything shameful in what I had done. 我看不出我做了什么丢脸的事。

The family kept their shameful secret for years. 这个家族把他们的家丑隐藏了多年。

用法补充：

本词不表示感到羞愧或羞耻，若要表示感到羞愧或羞耻，可用feel shame或be ashamed of等。

相关谚语：

Better a glorious death than a shameful life. 与其忍辱偷生，不如光荣而死。