matter
part of speech
noun (matter, matters); verb (matter, matters, mattered, mattering)
meaning for a pupil
1) Matter is what everything is made of; all things that take up space and have mass are matter. tree →
2) A matter is a subject or problem to deal with: a serious matter. tree →
3) To matter is to be important: your feelings matter. tree →
4) «What's the matter?» asks what is wrong. tree →
sense in the lessons
In the Tanakh and Jewish tradition: In the Torah "matter" often means a thing, an issue, or a legal case, and also "word" in some places. Hard cases were brought to Moses, and small ones were judged by others. Interpretation: The rabbis took this to show that Israel needed a system of judges at different levels. Moses took the hard cases to God. In the primary lessons: In maths problems it is a word of the story or of the explanation only; «the order does not matter» means it is adding or multiplying (you can swap the numbers). In science matter comes in solids, liquids and gases. In everyday life: «It doesn't matter» (it is not important), «no matter what», «as a matter of fact».
examples
- And the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master, and swore to him concerning this matter. (Torah GEN.24.9, JPS 1917) tree →
- And they judged the people at all seasons: the hard causes they brought unto Moses, but every small matter they judged themselves. (Torah EXO.18.26, JPS 1917) tree →
- Keep thee far from a false matter; and the innocent and righteous slay thou not; for I will not justify the wicked. (Torah EXO.23.7, JPS 1917) tree →
- Were thy harlotries a small matter, (Prophets EZK.16.20, JPS 1917) tree →
- Here is the end of the matter. (Writings DAN.7.28, JPS 1917) tree →
- And David said unto him: 'How went the matter? (Prophets 2SA.1.4, JPS 1917) tree →
- It does not matter which order you add. tree →
- No matter how you count, there are 12. tree →
- What is the matter with the sum? tree →
- What's the matter? You look sad. tree →
- Everything around us is made of matter. tree →
- Solids, liquids and gases are states of matter. tree →
- It doesn't matter if you lose, just have fun. tree →
- Every vote matters. tree →
- As a matter of fact, I've already finished. tree →
- “O Peter, you know it matters.” tree →
note
Science sense is uncountable (matter); the «subject» sense is countable (matters). Regular verb: mattered. «No matter» = whatever, however. Maths: no clue about the quantities. In explanations «the order does not matter» means it is adding or multiplying, not subtracting or dividing.
In the corpora
- And the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master, and swore to him concerning this matter.
- And they judged the people at all seasons: the hard causes they brought unto Moses, but every small matter they judged themselves.
- Keep thee far from a false matter; and the innocent and righteous slay thou not; for I will not justify the wicked.
- Now they that died by the plague were fourteen thousand and seven hundred, besides them that died about the matter of Korah.
- But the lad knew not any thing; only Jonathan and David knew the matter.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «matter» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.