「precious」は「貴重」や「高価」という意味になります。つまり、沢山のお金がかかる物や感情的な価値がある物に対して使う形容詞です。英語では「valuable」という言葉の意味が近いです。
（皆さんが英語の発音練習が出来るように、例文を読み上げて、録音しました。録音したファイルは以下にあります。）
She is such a precious little thing.
彼女超可愛いね。
「この台詞は赤ちゃんや小さい子供に対して使います。」
The gold ring is one of his most precious possessions.
彼のとても大切な物の中には、金の指輪があります。
Lord of the Ringsという映画では、Gollumが求めている指輪を「my precious」という名前を付けます。あと、「Precious」という主人公が出てくる「Precious」という映画もあります。たまにアメリカでは「Precious」は名前として使われているからです。
最後に、日常英語では「precious」は副詞として使われています。「すごく」や「とても」という意味になります。
The boy does precious little work.
その男の子はほとんど仕事をしない。
There are precious few people who can save the earth.
ほんのわずかな人が地球を救える。
Hi Luke,
‘ Precious ‘ is usually used for ‘Precious
metal’,especially Gold and ” Me :)”.
You’ve known that on the movie,right?
It is not about me but metal.I gess you can’t
imagine the personarilty who I am,though.
Okey.Let me(i.e precious one) explain about
Precious metal.
How precious is the precious metal?
At the bigining,the quality of gold bullion is said as ‘ Carat ‘ in standard.
Many Japanese people think ‘ Carat ‘ is only regarding ‘diamonds ‘.
Please note that ‘ Carat ‘ is also used for measuring how pure gold is.
If the metal is 100% gold bullion,it is 24 carats.However,The mint and its distributors don’t display 100% for refining process.
So,24 carat summary is one of expression of the mesurements in standard for gold.
On the point,many people are also misunderstanding as if 99.99% Pure gold is 24 Carats.The Gold bullion which we are able to buy or sell is not 24 Carats.Because,The purest gold is 99.99% Pure gold,we can buy or sell in actually.And,its ‘ Carat ‘ is ‘ 23.9976 Carats ‘.
So,there are also another expressions for ‘Fineness of the Gold’ and those are often used.
It is the expressions instead of saying ‘ What Carats is this? “. Then,We can say ‘ What
Fineness is this ? ‘. It’s not ‘ What is this Fineness ? ‘ (i.e. If you don’t expect the responses ‘ It’s Carat’ or ‘ It’s Percentage’ and others ).
First of all,there are 3 ways for fineness of the gold by using the numbers.
1.) Percentage ： expression as if it is part of a total which is 100
2.) Per Thousand : expression as if it is part of a total which is 1000
3.) Decimal : Decimal fraction (= a number less than one) that is shown as a point followed by the number of hundredths. When the Fineness is shown as Per Thousand, Decimal is aloso by Per Thousand.(= 999.9÷ 1000=.9999)
1.) 99.99%
2.) 999.9
3.) .9999
Especially, 2.) is often used in Asian countries.And, 99.99% pure gold is most favorited.
So,it is the primary case relatively that the fineness of 99.99% pure gold is expressed by using 2.) & 3.) and other things.
Moreover,we have to take care of the usage of Decimal in English.
Because,In Japan expression of Decimal is like this:” 0.9999 “,it is required to add ‘ Zero ‘ before ‘ Decimal point ‘. Meanwhile,In other countries,it is started with ‘ . ‘ which is a Decimal point. Do not pass without having a look at the small point,even if there is no ‘zero’ before that.
Anyways,I guess some Japanese people will have told you ‘ Is this one 24-Gold? ‘ overseas.
Therefore,some staffs in some gold shops overseas would have already known that Japanese people may say 99.99% pure gold as if ’24
Carats’. How will they reply them? Probably,they will reply ‘ This gold nugget is 99.99% pure
gold ‘ as Percentage ,it is 1.).
But,it will be written ‘ 999.9 ‘,it is 2.) & ‘ .9999 ‘,it is 3.) on its receipt.
And,there is one more expression about Fineness of Gold. It is ‘ Pronounce ‘ to state measuring below: 99.99% pure gold =’ Four Nines ‘.
It is similar to ‘ Five stars ‘ on its usage.
So,we can ask ‘ Is this Four Nines ? ‘ or ‘ Is the Fineness Four Nines ? ‘. It means ‘ Is this one 99.99% pure gold ? ‘.
When you say ‘ Four Nines ‘,do not forget ‘ S ‘ of ‘ Nines ‘. Because,by Japanese-English,it is said ‘Four Nine’ sometimes.
I who have learned previous things would be alright.