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.
black
Noun
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The darkest color; with no light; the color of the sky at night.
He stood alone in the black of the night.
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Blacks are people of a race with dark coloured skin.
There were many whites, some blacks and native Americans, and a few Asians.
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If a company is in the black, it is making a profit. (opposite = in the red)
It took a year for the restaurant to get in the black.
black
Adjective
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colored black
The black dog was the color of night.
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If someone is black, they belong to a race with dark-coloured skin.
It's still difficult for a black person to become a manager.
About 30 percent of Southfield's 80,000 citizens are black.
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About a race with dark-coloured skin.
More and more universities are offering courses in black history.
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Black coffee or tea has no milk in it.
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If something is black, it is very bad.
The day the war started was a black day in history.
black
Verb
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If you black something, you color it black.
He blacked his boots before the party.
They blacked out the windows so the light would not be seen outside.
A number of lines in the report were blacked out.
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If you black out, you stop seeing and hearing everything around you and you fall down.
After his tenth beer, he blacked out and we couldn't wake him up.
mark
Noun
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A mark is a single line left by a pen or pencil, or any small bit of color that got onto something.
You have a mark on your shirt from that tomato sauce you were eating.
mark
Verb
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To mark something is to put a mark on it.
The big rock marked the side of the car a little when she drove too close to it.
I marked the boxes so we would know which ones are mine.
Mark
Proper noun
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Mark is a male given name.