Englishfor English speakers
a
Determinative
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A is used when the following word could be any of a certain type.
Compare "A book I saw on the shelf" and "The book I gave you yesterday".
a
Noun
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A is the first letter of the alphabet.
The letter "a" comes before "b".
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In some schools, an A is a very high grade.
Ron got an A on his earth science test.
and
Conjunction
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You use and to talk about two things at once.
I like singing and reading.
Mary and Jane went on a holiday together.
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You use and when you are listing a few things and you are now on your last item of the list.
I like singing, reading, cycling and playing soccer.
I used to like this girl from my class as she is pretty, gentle and caring.
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And is used when you are putting two sentences together.
She came into the store, shouted at the cashier, and left.
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Used to show what happened after something else.
The alarm went off and I woke up.
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And is used to join certain numbers together.
Two hundred and thirty-five people went missing after the earthquake.
not
Adverb
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"Not" makes the verb of a sentence have the opposite meaning.
I was not there.
I am not fat!
not
Conjunction
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The item before "not" is more correct or better than the item after "not".
I wanted tea, not coffee!
Meaning: I wanted tea. I did not want coffee.
It's stupid, not funny.
Meaning: It is stupid. It is not funny.
not
Interjection
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Used to indicate the sentence before is sarcastic or ironic. This means that the sentence has the opposite meaning.
I like doing lots of boring homework. Not!
Meaning: I do not like doing lots of boring homework.
b
Noun
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B is the second letter of the alphabet.
"b" comes after "a" but before "c"
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In some schools, a B is a fairly high grade.
Charles got a B in his maths test.
gate
Noun
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A gate is like a door in a fence. It opens to let people go through the fence.
Please open the gate for me; my hands are full.
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In computers and logic, a gate is something that gives a simple yes-or-no answer from two (or one, or more than two) yes-or-no things coming into it.
We need one more "and"-gate here so that it will give the finished answer.