Englishfor English speakers
contradiction
Noun
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A contradiction is the act of contradicting.
He says that he was not there that night: that was a contradiction of his previous statement.
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A contradiction is a statement which makes two (or more) claims which both cannot be true.
There is a contradiction in saying that she is a widow who never married.
of
Preposition
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Made using.
It is a house of cards.
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.
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.