Englishfor English speakers
during
Preposition
—
If you do something during something else, you do it at the same time.
—
He often reads during dinner.
—
I'm always tired because I work during the night.
the
Determiner
—
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?
—
Used with an adjective that acts like a noun to mean all of the people concerned
The poor are always with us.
—
Used with superlatives forms of adjectives and adverbs.
You are the best.
performance
Noun
—
A performance is a show of acting or music.
We went to see a performance by local musicians last night.
The acting was good, but the noise made it difficult to enjoy the performance.
—
The performance of a person, machine, company, etc. is how well it does its job.
After a year of losing money, the company needs to improve performance.
This car is a high performance vehicle.
of
Preposition
—
Made using.
It is a house of cards.
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
—
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.
contract
Noun
—
A contract is a legal agreement to trade goods, services and/or property. It's usually written down.
If you would just sign this contract, the car will be yours.
In Japan, most worker’s employment contracts last until the age of sixty.
My father’s employment contract is for forty years.
You must look over the contract before you sign it.
contract
Verb
—
If something contracts, it gets smaller.
As the wood dries out, it contracts.
—
If you contract someone to do a job, you enter into a contract with them.
We've contracted a cleaning company to take care of the office.
When there's too much work, there are a number of small firms to which we will contract it out.
—
If you contract a disease, you become sick with it.
It's hard to understand why people risk contracting sexually transmitted diseases.
He contracted the flu.