1) 可以作为一般的名词使用，表示“方式”、“办法”。

• Work while you work. Play while you play. This is the way to be happy and gay.干时干。玩时玩。这样过日子，快乐又安然。
• That is the way that most people find is easiest to remember Ohm's Law.那是大多数人认为最容易记住欧姆定律的办法。

2) way 可以后面有对它加以修饰的定语从句。按照正规的句法结构，应该在 way 之后加上 in which 然后再接上从句。

• Reports provide numerous examples of the way in which the courts have deal with specific cases.一些报道提供了许多例子，说明法院是如何审理一些个案的。

但是后面这个 in which 常常省略。

• She praised the Daily Mirror for the way it has highlighted Somalia's plight.她称赞《每日镜报》突出报道索马里惨状的做法。
• She has gone to a hotel in secret, the way she might go to meet a lover.(Michael Cunningham, The Hours, 2000)她秘密地去了一家旅馆，用这个办法，她就可以私会情人。
• The way he said it made the name sound like orchids and honey.他说出这个名字时的语气，使得这个名字听起来香如兰，甜如蜜。

3) way 前面加上介词 in，后面用或不用 in which 引入从句，成为 in the way (in which) …，可以形成一个状语成分，对主句的内容加以修饰。

• By asking the question in the way I did, I gave people something to chew on; I made it easy and attractive for them to get involved.我用我的那个办法提问，就让人们有点东西可以反复斟酌；我让他们感到，置身其中，是不费劲而且趣味无穷的。

此时，in the way 实际上成了一个连词成分，引入方式状语从句。

4) 但是，连前面这个 in 也常常省略，结果就剩下光秃秃的 the way 作为主句和从句之间的系带，此时 the way 在实际上就成了一个主从连词，引入方式状语从句。

• Let people see information electronically and browse it exactly the way they want.就让大家看电子资讯，爱怎样浏览就怎样浏览。
• If he acts the way it pleases him, he won't be invited any more.他如果我行我素，就再也不邀请他了。
• Only a few weeks ago, California Republicans were giddy about the idea that Arnold Schwarzenegger could revive and remake their party the way another actor-turned politician, Ronald Reagan, did when he entered the governor's race 38 years ago.(Time, September 22, 2003)就在几个星期前，加州的共和党人还沾沾自喜，以为阿尔诺·施瓦辛格可以像另一个演员出身的政客罗纳德·里根 38 年前出马竞选州长时那样，重振和改造他们的党。
• Certainly from what I've heard, things would never have happened the way they did.的确，按照我所听到的，事情本来不至于弄成那个样子。
• Everything she sees feels as if it's pinned to the day the way etherized butterflies are pinned to a board. (Michael Cunningham, The Hours, 2000)她无论看见什么，都似乎钉住在这一天上面，就像那些被醚麻醉了的蝴蝶钉住在木板上一样。

5) 哪些有 way 的词组是状语（后面不引入从句），哪些是主从连词成分（后面引入从句），取决于这个词组本身的意思完全不完全，完全了就是状语；不完全，需要后面再添加说明（即接上从句），就是连词成分（常常以 the way 出现）。有一些是意思完全的。

• It's longer this way.这样走更远了。
• It doesn't work that way.那不是办法。
• Let's go a different way.咱们换条路吧。
• We'll go your way.我们就照你的办。
• Try to see it my way.你站在我的角度想一想。
• You're going the wrong way.你们走错了路了。
• She'll go her own way.她要我行我素。
• They thought they would win that way.他们觉得自己那样做就能胜利。
• Do it the usual way.平常怎么做就怎么做。
• They fought racism in their own small way.他们在力所能及的小范围内反对了种族主义。

还有一些是意思不完全的。

• We left the apartment the way it was.我们保持公寓的原样，离开了。
• It's not the way it looks.看来如此，实际上并不如此。
• We'll never finish the way things are going.这样下去，咱们永远完不了。
• She cooks chicken the way I like.她烧鸡的办法我很喜欢。
• Moore had arranged the seating on Rumsfeld's plane the way everything was done in Congress, by seniority. (Newsweek, Oct. 9, 2006, p.34)莫尔原先已经按照国会凡事都以资历长短为序的办法排好了伦斯菲尔德座机上的座位次序。
• His heart longed for fame the way a plant in drought longs for rain. (John Darnton, The Darwin Conspiracy, p.41)他的心渴望成名成家，犹如干旱中的植物之渴望雨水。
• Everybody is aware of the disorganized way the Senate and the House carry on their work.人人都知道参众两院的工作是进行得多么杂乱无章。

但是以 the way 引入的从句，不但可以是方式状语从句，也可以是名词从句。

• I don't like the way he runs things.我不喜欢他办事的方式。

6) way 前面有一个主有代词（my way, your way, his way...等），作为状语词组，除了可以表示“照某人的办法”外，还可以表示“向着某人这个方向”。

• America won. Reagan won. Gorbachev came his (Reagan's) way. (New York Review of Books, Nov. 4, 2004, p.27)美国赢了。里根赢了。戈尔巴乔夫向里根靠拢了。
• He occasionally glanced their way.他偶尔瞧他们那边看看。
• Little white lies (of all sorts) are tossed our way daily.每天都有人向我们撒（各式各样）无伤大雅的圆场谎。
• The Republican Party is sending money their candidate's way.共和党正在给他们那位候选人寄钱去。
• A liberal lion in his fifth decade in the Senate, the Massachusetts senator (=Edward Kennedy) is in a position to help Obama court voting groups who so far have tilted Clinton's way. (The Associated Press, Jan. 28, 2008)这位麻省的参议员在参议院任职已经是第五个十年期了，他一直是自由派的一头猛狮，现在它可以帮助奥巴马把迄今一直倒向（希拉里·）克林顿的选民争取过来。
• Will this push those disgruntled Hillary voters McCain's way? (Jim Vandehei and John F. Harris. Politico, Aug. 30, 2008)这会把那些耿耿于怀的希拉里选民推到麦凯恩一边吗？

但是只能用 my way, his way, X's way... 等形式，不能用 the way of X 这个形式。

7) in the way of 表示将前面所说的某一比较笼统的事物进一步加以具体化的限定。

• He received very little in the way of wages.他在工资上所得很少。
• We didn't find much in the way of fossils.在化石方面，我们的发现不多。
• What else have you got today in the way of problems?你今天还遇到过些什么问题？
• They were also used to having him reappear without much in the way of warning.他常常不那么事先通知一声就出现，他们对此也习以为常了。

by way of 同 in the way of 意义相近，可以用来表示某人或某物的作用。

• Americans salvaged and returned it (= the HMS Resolute, a British ship that sank in American waters during the 1850s) to the United Kingdom, and a grateful Queen Victoria ordered a desk made from its oaken timbers by way of official thanks. (Tom Clancy，Clear and Present Danger, p.1)美国人把船打捞起来，送还给了英国，维多利亚女王感激之余，下令拿船上的橡木造了一张书桌，以表正式的谢意。
• You are a very strange creature by way of a friend! (Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Chapter Six)你这种朋友真是世上少有！

8) 但是，get in the way of 或 get in one's way 却是“妨碍”、“挡路”的意思。

• Getting older shouldn't get in the way of enjoying your bathroom.虽然年纪变老，但是这不应该妨碍你享受洗澡的乐趣。
• But he didn't intend to let anything get in his way.但是他不打算让任何事情挡住他的路。