陈望道先生在《修辞学发凡》中为“错综句式”所下的定义是：凡把反复、对偶、排比、或其他可有整齐形式、共同词面的语言，说成形式参差、词面別异的，我们称为错综。并指出了构成错综的四种方法：抽换词面；交蹉语次；伸缩文身；变化句式。《红楼梦》经常运用这种错综的修辞手法，来调剂过于整齐的句式，做到同中有异，从而避免了句式的单调和呆板，使语言富于变化，具有参差美。

1) 麝月道：“……那些老妈妈子们，老天拔地，伏侍一天，也该叫他们歇歇，小丫头子们也是伏侍了一天，这会子还不叫他们顽顽去。所以让他们都去罢，我在这里看着。”（第二十回）

杨译：

"Those old women deserve a rest after waiting on you all day, and the girls ought to have some fun too after a day's work. So I let them all go while I keep an eye on things here."

霍译：

"...The old women were practically dead on their feet after waiting on you all day; I had to let them go and rest. And the girls have been on duty all day, too. You could scarcely grudge them some time off now for amusement. — Which leaves only me to look after the place.'

麝月的这句答语中，讲到“那些老妈妈子们”，说的是“也该叫他们歇歇”；讲到“小丫头子们”，说的不是“也该叫他们歇歇去”，而是“还不叫他们顽顽去”。这样的错综句式在译文中以不同方式得到了再现：杨译简洁明了，以and连接两个并列分句;霍译则分作两句表达，两句之间也用And连接，表明了紧密的结构关系。无论哪个译本，and 前后的语法结构和语意均是对称的，再现了原文语言的形式美。

2) 第二件，这些楼台房舍，是必要用界划的。一点不留神，栏杆也歪了，柱子也塌了，门窗也倒竖过来，阶矶也离了缝，甚至于桌子挤到墙里去，花盆放在帘子上来，岂不倒成了 一张笑“话”儿了。（第四十二回）

杨译：

The second essential thing is that in order to get the proportions of the buildings right you'll have to use a ruler. The least carelessness may result in crooked balustrades, collapsing pillars, lopsided windows and doors, steps out of line, or even tables squashed into the walls and flower-pots perched on top of screens. Then the whole thing would be a joke.

霍译：

One of your difficulties is going to be the ruler-work. With all those buildings you're going to have to do the straight lines with a ruler, and in ruler-work if you're not very careful it's easy to make the most terrible mistakes——railings that slant to one side, leaning pillars, windows on the skew or steps drawn out of line. Sometimes pillars, windows on the skew or steps drawn out of line. Sometimes careless ruling can produce even more grotesque results, like a table squashed into a wall or a flowerpot apparently testing on the side of a curtain. Any one of these things is enough to make a painting look ridiculous.