church
part of speech
noun (a church, churches)
meaning for a pupil
1) A church is a building where Christians go to pray and worship. tree →
2) A church is a group of Christians with the same beliefs, like the Catholic Church. tree →
3) Church can mean the service held there: «We go to church on Sunday.» tree →
sense in the lessons
In everyday life many families go to church for services, weddings, christenings and funerals; churches often have a tower, a spire or bells. In towns a church can be a landmark («turn left at the church»). In history lessons churches are old buildings that tell us about the past. Phrases: «go to church», «at church», «church hall», «churchyard».
examples
- We walked past the old stone church. tree →
- My cousin got married in a church. tree →
- They go to church every Sunday. tree →
- The church bells rang at noon. tree →
- The school concert was in the church hall. tree →
- Turn right after the church. tree →
- The church has beautiful coloured windows. tree →
- There are graves in the churchyard. tree →
- "Why, she never goes to church." tree →
note
Plural: churches (add -es after ch). «Go to church» (no «the») means going to the service; «go to the church» means to the building. Capital C when it is a name: «St Mary's Church», «the Church of England». Other faiths have other places of worship: mosque, synagogue, temple, gurdwara.
In the corpora
- Picture a small church in Wellington: at the front stands a long wooden box covered in flowers, the coffin.
- A polling station is a place, often a school or church hall, where people vote in secret in a small booth.
- Five minutes from church, post-office, and golf-links».
- "A man of the cloth" means a priest or clergyman, someone whose job is to lead a church.
- Confession at church can lift the weight of guilt, but it does not replace saying sorry to the person you wronged.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «church» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.