潛規則

句子：這個女演員自曝曾被某導演潛規則。

誤譯：The actress exposed that she had been taken in by a certain director through the potential rule.

正譯：The actress exposed that she had been forced to share a casting couch with a certain director.

解釋：潛規則本來是個名詞，在這里變成了動詞。to be taken in的意思是to be deceived，“被欺騙”沒有表達出“被潛規則”的含義。

娛樂圈的潛規則，指的是“演員為上鏡與導演之間進行性交換”，帶有貶義。potential是個中性詞，指“現在還不是，而將來會變成的”，即“潛在的”，例如：potential customer(潛在的顧客)。

而potential rule的意思是“現在還不是，而將來可能會變成的規則”，將“潛規則”譯成potential rule是不妥的。英語可以用casting couch表示“潛規則”；用to be forced to share a casting couch with sb表示“被潛規則”。例如：

1. 這個年輕女演員利用潛規則進入電影業。The young actress used the casting couch to enter the film industry.

“潛規則”在一般不帶有負面意義的情況下，可以譯為hidden rule, latent rule，underlying rule或unspoken rule。例如：

2. 各行各業都有潛規則。All trades and professions have their own hidden rules.

3. 這位職業經理人現身說法揭露了商場潛規則。The professional manager exposed the latent rule in the commercial circles through his own examples.

4. 關于財富的一個潛規則是人們不談論錢，但是談論投資。An underlying rule of wealth is that money is not discussed but investments are.

5. 我問過演藝圈內幾十個人是否聽說過這個潛規則。I asked dozens of people in the entertainment business if they had heard of this unspoken rule.▲

（本欄目供稿：王逢鑫教授）