“同X”，如“同志”、“同胞”、“同行”、“同伴”、“同路人”、“同学”等，英语各有各的译法（如 “comrade”，“compatriot”, “colleague” , “partner”， “fellow traveller”，“schoolmate”等），很难定型。但有个例外，即“同学”之译作“schoolmate”用公式表示，该是“同 x”与 “-mate”了。

就从“同学”说起吧，“同学”而又同一个班级的，英语便是“classmate”。

“同室”，则是“ roommate”：

1. His suspicion piqued by seeing me home at this hour, roommate Viktor peers at ray table.

                                                   —George Feifer: Moscow Farewell, NY 1976，p.182

与自己同住一个“flat”，就是“flatmate”：

2. Tessa's flatmate would be, I reckoned, something of a Whatcombs street type …

                                                   —Geoggrey Household: Red Anger, 1975, p.95

“同桌”则为 “table（或 desk）mate”：

3. My tablemates nodded with approval.

                                                   —Leona & Jerrold Schecter: An American Family 

                                                      in Moscow, NY 1975, p.329

“同座”为 “seatmate”：

4. On a bus I overheard two passengers discussing the value of exercise. “I bought myself a bicycle，”stated the first man.

“Do you use it much?”inquired his seatmate.

“同睡一个床的”是 “bedmate”；“（在教堂里）同坐一条板凳的”是“pewmate”；“（动物）同窝的崽子”是“littermate”：

5. Your tablemate, proposing to be your bed-mate，is a plant — I do believe.

                                                  —Thomas S. Burns: Tales of ITT, 1974, p. 46

6. My pewmate was an elderly man who had long been Mo-an's [name of a Christian church in Shanghai] pastor.

                                                 —National Geographic, July 1980, p.33

7. At that stage young cheetahs are nearly full grown and are fairly competent hunters, though they still have much to learn. Perhaps partly for that reason littermates tend to remain together for at least several more months before going their separate ways.

                                                —National Geographic, May 1980, p.728

英语中“-mate”型的合成词比较多，而汉语中往往没有现成的对应词可供汉译之用，如下列这句中的 “phonemate”就是指经常利用电话（聊天等）的谈伴：

8. This time, the wife of former Attorney General John Mitchell is telling phonemates that her husband is trying to force her out of her New York apartment“to make room for Nixon …so that he can run for Mayor of New York in 1977”.

                                               —Newsweek, September 17, 1975 as per The 

                                                  Study of Current English, December 1975, p.45

有的“-mate”，不见于《新英汉词典》，也不容易猜对其词义，如下例中的“coffeemate”并不是“同喝咖啡的人”：

Coffeemate: Artificial cream in powdered form for adding to coffee. (a convenience food which keeps indefinitely)

                                               —Richard Mabey: “Food”，Penguin Education, 1972/4, p. 20

最后，还有一点值得注意的。有时候，“-mate”未必就是汉语“同x”的唯一序名。如前文谈到过“同桌（指饭桌）”固可译作“tablemate”，但未必就只有“tablemate”这一种译法。请看：

9. I …was his table neighbor at occasional official dinners and exchanged pleasantries with him at many receptions.

                                               —F. D. Kohler: Understanding the Russians, 

                                                  Harper & Row，1970, P.138

10. While the late Pope John XXIII was still the Apostolic Muncio to France, he found himself seated at a banquet next to an elegant dinner partner who was wearing a gown of perilously low decollctage. Instead of being censorious or embarrassed or pretending to be unaware of the costume, when dessert was served, the prelate offered her an apple. She was a little surprised, but he explained with a smile, "Please do take it, madame — it was only after Eveate the apple that she became aware of how little she had on.”

                                              —Reader's Digest, November 1974, p.12

又如前文提到的“bedmate”，也有个与之同义的“bedfellow”。

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