摘要：词典多将times(倍数)成为plural noun(复数名词)，这大概是因为很少有人说one time(一倍)。英语中对相等的表达方式很多，而time又有很多含义(甚至one time也有多种解读)，所以就不用one time来表达“等量”了。于是见到倍数，

严格地说 three times不是词，而是两个词组成的短语。

词典多将times(倍数)成为plural noun(复数名词)，这大概是因为很少有人说one time(一倍)。英语中对相等的表达方式很多，而time又有很多含义(甚至one time也有多种解读)，所以就不用one time来表达“等量”了。于是见到倍数，就默认为不是“一倍”了。

three times(三倍)，应叫“数量短语”，也可以泛一点叫名词性短语。

名词性短语可以做状语，如

【例句1】They left for Spain this morning. （他们今早就去了西班牙。） [牛津高级学者辞典; morning词条]

【例句2】I'll see you the day after tomorrow. (我将后天见您。)[牛津高级学者辞典 ；tomorrow词条]]

【例句1】中this morning和【例句2】的the day after tomorrow都是名词性短语，在这里均做状语。

下面这个例句的数量短语only a few hours也是状语修饰old，因为它回答how old问题，

【例句3】The baby was only a few hours old. (婴儿只有几个小时大。)[牛津高级学者辞典;old词条]

所以three times也用作状语也没什么大惊小怪的。

一种典型状语用法是在as......as前面，表达程度，如

【例句4】There were three times as many girls as boys. （女孩的数量是男孩的三倍。）[朗文当代英语词典]

【例句5】He polled four times as many votes as his rival. （他获得的选票是对手的四倍。）[柯林斯高级学者辞典]

【例句6】She earns five times as much as I do./She earns five times more than I do. （她挣的是我的五倍。）[剑桥高级学者辞典]

另外一个典型用法是：后面跟形容词/副词的比较级，如

【例句7】Sound travels four times faster in water than in air. (声音在水中传播的速度是空气中的四倍。)[朗文当代英语词典]

【例句8】Its profits are rising four times faster than the average company. (其利润增长速度是普通公司的四倍。) [柯林斯高级学者辞典]

【例句9】Young people were several times more likely to be unemployed than older workers. (年轻人失业的可能性是老年工人的几倍。)[柯林斯高级学者辞典]

【例句10】This work is ten times better than the last piece you did. （这件作品比你上一件作品好十倍。）[剑桥高级学者辞典]

上述表达很流行，句义的典型理解是“倍数不用加一”，即four times faster than是“速度快达四倍”,不是“速度超过了四倍”（参见【例句6】）。为了避免歧义，很多资料建议还是用four times as fast as。

"倍数”也常常出现在带定冠词的名词短语前，如

【例句11】My foot swelled up to three times the normal size when it was stung by a wasp. （我的脚被黄蜂蜇了一下，肿到正常大小的三倍。） [剑桥高级学者辞典]

【例句12】The stock was recently selling for more than 200 times the past four quarters' earnings. (该股最近的售价是过去四个季度收益的200多倍。) [朗文商业英语词典]

在这杨用法中，three times被归入“前位限定词”。

来源：雪茹教育