enquire & inquire 詞彙辨析

Both words derive from the Old French enquerre, from a variant of the Latin inquirere, based on quaerere 'seek'. The same root word can be seen in various modern English words, including acquire, require, conquer, quest, request, inquest, and question.

這兩個單詞均源自法語詞彙enquerre,來源於一個拉丁詞彙inquirere的變種，基於詞彙quaerere（尋求）。現代英語詞彙的很多單詞均來源於這個詞彙，包括acquire（獲得），require（需要），conquer（征服），quest（追求），request（要求），inquest（審訊），和question（問題）。

Enquire和inquire這兩個動詞傳統意義上的區別在於：Enquire的一般意義爲“詢問”，To enquire – to ask for information。Inquire的含義爲“做正式的調查”，To inquire – to make a formal investigation。另外Query作爲動詞，表示“詢問”，作爲名詞表示“疑問”。即To query – means to question, to ask a question about.

Could I enquire about your mother's health?

我可以詢問下你母親的健康狀況麼？

She inquired about the library's rare books collection.

她調查了圖書館稀有的藏書。

I have a query about what you said.

我對你說的話保有疑問。

In practice, however, enquire, and the associated noun enquiry, are more common in British English while inquire (and the noun inquiry) are more common in American English, but otherwise there is little discernible distinction in the way the words are used. Some style guides require that only inquire or only enquire be used.

實際上，enquire和它的名詞形式enquiry常用語英式英語中，而inquire和其名詞形式inquiry則在美式英語中更爲常見。這兩個單詞在使用方式上並無其他明顯的差別。在一些特殊場合中會要求只使用inquire/inquiry或者enquire/enquiry。

Every enquiry is very welcome.

歡迎每條諮詢。

Adam helped the police with their inquiries.

亞當協助警方進行調查。

Shall I inquire about the price of tickets?

我可以問一下票價嗎？