“饷”原指“旧时军警的薪金”。英语可以译为 soldier's or policeman's pay。例如：1. 20世纪40年代，物价一直飞涨。这个警察领了月饷就赶紧买粮食养家糊口。 In the 1940's, prices kept soaring. Immediately after the policeman got his monthly pay, he went to buy food to keep his family alive.2. 解放前，这个警察局在每月月初给警员关饷。Before liberation, the police station issued pay to its policemen at the beginning of every month.3. 20世纪30年代，一些地方军阀克扣军饷以中饱私囊。In the 1930's, some local warlords docked part of their soldiers' pay and provisions for their own use.“吃空饷”，指“有人在工资册有其名，但是不上班而领工资”或“多报在册名额，骗领多余工资”。英语名词可以译为 payroll fraud。例如：4. 解放前，这个县长靠吃空饷发横财。In the pre-liberation days, the county magistrate got his fortune by payroll fraud.5. 这些“官二代”有自己的办法吃空饷。These children of officials have their own ways to commit payroll fraud.“吃空饷”，英语动词可以译为 to get pay from the government without working。例如：6. 在这个政府部门，发现有人吃空饷。In this governmental department, a few people were found to get pay from the government without working.“吃空饷人员”，英语可以译为ghost employee, phantom employee。例如：7. 吃空饷人员是工资册上有名，但实际上不工作的人。A ghost employee is a person on the payroll who doesn't actually work.8. 在河北、四川、河南和吉林四省，10余万省政府吃空饷人员已被清理出公务员队伍。More than 100,000 phantom employees of provincial governments have been cleaned out of the teams of civil servants in Hebei, Sichuan, Henan and Jilin provinces.有人将“吃空饷”译为 to freeload，不太准确。to freeloader 的意思是to accept free food and accommodation from other people without giving them anything in exchange，即“吃白食”、“白吃白住”、“揩油”，而缺乏“在工资册上有名字”的内涵。例如：9. 咱们各付各的，因为我不喜欢吃白食。 Let's go Dutch, as I don't like to freeload on others.▲（本栏目供稿：王逢鑫教授）