Englishfor English speakers
a
Determinative
—
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".
—
In some schools, an A is a very high grade.
Ron got an A on his earth science test.
night
Noun
—
Night is the opposite of day. It is the time between sunset and sunrise when the sky is dark.
During the day, we'll go hiking on John Doe Mountain. At night, we'll come back to the hotel and get some sleep.
There was a terrible accident in the night that woke all of us up.
at
Preposition
—
Used to describe where something is, or when saying something's position
I am at home.
Let's meet at the pub!
—
The time at which something happened or will happen
Breakfast is at 9 o'clock.
At 5pm we went home.
—
Indicating something's state
At half price!
Water boils at high temperatures.
at
Symbol
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The @ symbol, used to replace at
support@microsoft.com is an email address.
Apples @ £1.50 per kilogram.
the
Determiner
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Used, instead of a, to reference something specific, already known to exist.
Compare "I read a book." and "I read the book."
—
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.
opera
Noun
—
An opera is a story told by actors singing instead of speaking, along with an orchestra.
The couple dressed up to go hear their favorite opera at the theatre.