ambulance
part of speech
noun (an ambulance, ambulances)
meaning for a pupil
1) A special vehicle with trained people and medical equipment that takes sick or injured people to hospital quickly. tree →
2) Also used for the service itself (call an ambulance). tree →
sense in the lessons
In safety lessons it is part of what to do in an emergency: call the emergency number (911 in the USA and Canada, 999 or 112 in the UK and Ireland, 000 in Australia, 111 in New Zealand), say «ambulance», give the address and stay on the line. When an ambulance comes with lights and sirens, cars pull over to let it pass. Phrases: call an ambulance, ambulance crew, paramedics, by ambulance, air ambulance.
examples
- Someone fainted, so the teacher called an ambulance. tree →
- The ambulance raced past with its siren on. tree →
- Cars pulled over to let the ambulance through. tree →
- The paramedics in the ambulance helped the injured cyclist. tree →
- An air ambulance is a helicopter that carries patients. tree →
- Grandma went to hospital by ambulance. tree →
- If someone is badly hurt, call for an ambulance straight away. tree →
note
Countable: an ambulance (starts with a vowel sound, so «an»). The word is often written backwards on the front of the vehicle so drivers can read it in their mirrors. Only call an ambulance in a real emergency — prank calls can stop help reaching someone who needs it.
In the corpora
- Usually the facts are small and boring: a car, a van, an ambulance, a police car for twenty minutes.
- An ambulance outside a house tells you someone needed help, not who or why; offer help, not guesses.
- A siren means an emergency vehicle, such as an ambulance, a fire engine or a police car, is coming.
- Knowing your address helps an ambulance or fire engine reach you faster.
- 999 reaches the police, an ambulance, the fire service or the coastguard (who rescue people at sea).
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «ambulance» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.