affairs
part of speech
noun (plural of affair: an affair, affairs)
meaning for a pupil
1) Matters or business, especially public or official ones: world affairs, foreign affairs, current affairs. tree →
2) Personal business and money matters: "She put her affairs in order." tree →
3) An event or situation, described in a certain way: "The party was a quiet affair." tree →
4) (adult life) A secret romantic relationship between two people when at least one of them is married to someone else. tree →
sense in the lessons
In news and citizenship lessons "current affairs" means the important things happening in the world now; governments have a minister of foreign affairs. "State of affairs" means the situation. In adult life seen by a child, "put his affairs in order" means sorting out money and a will, often before an operation or death. "Having an affair" is when a married person secretly has a boyfriend or girlfriend, which often hurts a family deeply. Phrases: current affairs, foreign affairs, state of affairs, mind your own affairs.
examples
- All the day they trouble mine affairs; all their thoughts are against me for evil. (Writings PSA.56.6, JPS 1917) tree →
- Well is it with the man that dealeth graciously and lendeth, that ordereth his affairs rightfully. (Writings PSA.112.5, JPS 1917) tree →
- And Daniel requested of the king, and he appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, over the affairs of the province of Babylon; but Daniel was in the gate of the king. (Writings DAN.2.49, JPS 1917) tree →
- We discuss current affairs every Friday in class. tree →
- The Minister for Foreign Affairs met the ambassador. tree →
- "This is a sorry state of affairs," sighed the teacher, looking at the messy room. tree →
- Before his operation, Grandad put his affairs in order. tree →
- My birthday was a small family affair. tree →
- Mind your own affairs! tree →
- In the story, the queen discovered the king was having an affair. tree →
- He took an active part in public affairs. tree →
note
"Affairs" is the plural; "affair" is singular (an affair). Spelled with double f. Trap: "affair" (matter, event) is not "a fair" (a funfair). Plural "affairs" is used for public business (world affairs); singular "an affair" more often means one event or a secret relationship.
In the corpora
- All the day they trouble mine affairs; all their thoughts are against me for evil.
- Well is it with the man that dealeth graciously and lendeth, that ordereth his affairs rightfully.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «affairs» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.