1.parent指父亲或母亲,复数parents指“双亲”。但在儿童语言中,表示“双亲”用father and mother比用parents更常见。
2.parent用于文学语言夸张用语中,可表示“根源,开始”,通常用单数形式。
3.parent在句中可修饰其他名词作定语,表示能够繁衍的“母体”。

My parents forbid me from having wine and cigarettes.我父母不许我抽烟喝酒。
My parents have consented.我父母已经同意了。
My parents often stopped me doing things I liked.父母时常制止我做我所喜欢做的事情。
Both of her parents teach at a middle school.她的父母都在一个中学任教。
Her parents brought her up to be polite.她的父母把她培养成有礼貌的人。
That girl's health concerned her parents.那个女孩的身体状况令她的父母担忧。
She spent three years at college, scraping along on an allowance from her parents.她靠父母的津贴勉勉强强地在大学里度过了三年。
She still lives on her parents.她仍依靠父母生活。
His parents don't allow him out on Sunday.他父母不许他星期天外出。
He ｗas alｗays a burden to his parents.他一直是父母的沉重负担。
His unkind behaviour caused his parents a great deal of pain.他不厚道的行为令他的父母极度痛苦。
The student's failing grades troubled his parents deeply.这个学生考试常不及格,使他的家长深为忧虑。
He welcomed us and explained where his parents had gone.他对我们表示欢迎,并告诉我们他父母到哪里去了。
As an only child he was the idol of his parents.作为独子,他是父母的宠儿。
The parents were happy at the happy marriage of their daughter.父母为女儿美满的婚姻而感到愉快。
Pride is the parent of all evils.骄傲乃万恶之源。
Our club is the parent association and there are now four others like it.我们的俱乐部是始创协会,现在又有四个类似的俱乐部。

1.他父母住在香港。
［误］  His parent live in Hong Kong.
［正］  His parents live in Hong Kong.
［析］  parent作为单数名词,只指父母中的一个,当表示“双亲”时,要用parents。
2.我们的老师对我们像父母一样慈爱。
［误］  Our teachers treat us parently.
［正］  Our teachers treat us as kindly as our parents.
［析］  有少数名词可以加-ly构成形容词,如 friendly, fatherly, motherly, comradely等,但parently不能这样用。

parent作“祖先”解时,常用其复数形式,主要用于文学作品中。例如:
our first parents我们人类的始祖Adam(亚当)和Eve(夏娃)

［词源］  ＜中古英语parens(生育子女的人)