course

«course» in Mova's school dictionary: a set of lessons on a subject: «a swimming course» — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (a course, courses); adverb phrase «of course»; verb (course, courses, coursed, coursing — rare, of liquids)

meaning for a pupil

1) A course is a set of lessons on a subject: «a swimming course». tree →

2) A course is a part of a meal: «The main course was pasta.» tree →

3) A course is the path or direction something follows, like a river or a ship. tree →

4) A course is an area for a sport or race: a golf course, an obstacle course. tree →

5) «Of course» means «yes, certainly» or «as you would expect». tree →

6) To course means to flow fast: «Tears coursed down her cheeks.» tree →

sense in the lessons

At school a course is a set of lessons, and in maths or science a course of action is a plan. In everyday life meals have courses (starter, main course, dessert). On sports day there is an obstacle course; golf is played on a golf course. In stories ships and rivers change course. Phrases: «of course», «of course not», «in the course of», «a course of action», «on course», «off course», «in due course», «main course», «golf course».

examples

• I am doing a first-aid course this summer. tree →
• «Can you help me?» «Of course!» tree →
• The main course was roast chicken. tree →
• The river changes course after heavy rain. tree →
• We ran round the obstacle course on sports day. tree →
• The plane was blown off course by the storm. tree →
• Of course, you need to show your working in maths. tree →
• In the course of the week we read three books. tree →
• Of course it was a Friday. tree →

note

Countable: courses. Homophone trap: «course» (lessons, path, of course) and «coarse» (rough, not smooth) sound the same. «Of course» is two words. Saying «of course» can sound rude if the other person did not know — «Yes, sure» can be kinder.

In the corpora

• This is the last lesson of the course.
• Squirrels are skilled acrobats that solve puzzles to reach bird feeders, and some people build squirrel obstacle courses for fun.
• This is the last lesson of the course, so it gathers the big ideas once more.
• They film what happens, even when it is sad, because nature has to take its course.
• Of course, nobody gets any drier.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «course» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.