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.
history
Noun
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History is what happened in the past.
China has many old books about its history.
The restaurant is close to the city's history and art museums.
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History is the study of what happened in the past.
He is a professor of history.
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If somebody or something makes history, they do something very important that will not be forgotten.
She made history by becoming Africa's first elected female president.
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If somebody or something goes down in history, they are remembered by people because they were very important or well known.
She'll go down in history as one of our greatest writers.
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A history is a book recording things that have happened.
He was reading a history of Ancient Rome.
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If somebody or something has a history of something, it's very common for them.
She has a history of cheating on tests.
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If you say something is history, you mean it's finished, over, dead, or not important any more.
OK, that game's history.
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If you say the rest is history, you mean you don't have to tell about because everyone already knows.
They just happened to run into each other at the right time, and the rest is history.
of
Preposition
—
Made using.
It is a house of cards.
the
Determiner
—
Used, instead of a, to reference something specific, already known to exist.
Compare "I read a book." and "I read the book."
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Used with a stress, to show that the word following is special.
Are you the John Smith that I went to school with?
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Used with an adjective that acts like a noun to mean all of the people concerned
The poor are always with us.
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Used with superlatives forms of adjectives and adverbs.
You are the best.
English
Proper noun
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English is a language spoken by around 800 million people. The main places where English is spoken include:
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The United States of America
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The United Kingdom
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India, Pakistan, Australia and all the other countries of the old British Empire.
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The English refers to the people who live in England.
The English have spread all over the world.
English
Adjective
—
Something that is English is related to England, its people or its culture.
I prefer the English accent.
I am English.
speaking
—
noun
the utterance of intelligible speech
—
adjective
capable of or involving speech or speaking
human beings--the speaking animals
a speaking part in the play
—
noun
(= speechmaking)
delivering an address to a public audience
people came to see the candidates and hear the speechmaking
peoples
—
noun
the human beings of a particular nation or community or ethnic group
the indigenous peoples of Australia