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.
wash
Verb
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When you wash something, you clean it with water.
I wash my car every day.
wash
Noun
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The act of washing.
He gave the dog a wash.
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The items for washing, before, after, or during the washing.
He threw his dirty clothes in the wash.
She brought the wash in from the clothesline.
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A failure.
The program was a complete wash.
His project is a wash.
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With up: to be washed up is to be completely discouraged and burnt out.
The Starcraft 2 servers were down and I was all washed up.
out
Preposition
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Something that is out is not in.
Polly opened the door and went out.
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If something using electricity is out, it is turned off or the electricity is not flowing..
Turn the light out before you leave.
The power's out so nothing's working.
I'm trying to find which light went out.
Oh, no! The fire's gone out again.
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Something that moves out moves from the inside to a place that is not inside.
He took the pen out of his pocket.
Please, close the door as you go out.
If you walk out that door, you can't come back.
The car stopped and out came two men.
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far away
We live out in the country.
He's about half an hour out of Toronto.
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If someone is out, they are not in the place where someone is looking for them.
You can't see the doctor now. He is out.
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to a number of people
We'll give out the books after everyone has arrived.
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away
Don't throw that out. I'm still using it.
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If something is out, you can look at or see it.
the sun is out
the flowers are out
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If something comes out of something, it comes from it.
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If something is out, it is available for sale.
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If something is out, it is not in fashion.
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If someone is out, they are not conscious.
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If a you are out of something, you had it before but you've used or sold all of it.
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If mathx/math is made out of mathy/math, mathy/math is the material that mathx/math is made of.
out
Noun
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If someone is prevented from scoring in baseball, they make an out.
There were two men on base and two outs.
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A way to escape is an out.