day
part of speech
noun (day, days)
meaning for a pupil
1) A day is the time from one midnight to the next; a day has 24 hours and seven days make a week. tree →
2) Day is the light part of the day, when it is not night. tree →
3) A day can be a time or age: «in those days». tree →
4) A day can mean a special day: «sports day», «a day off». tree →
5) (casual) «Day» is used in greetings: «G'day» (Australia), «have a nice day»; «call it a day» means stop working; «make my day» means make me very happy. tree →
6) (casual) «Not my day» means everything goes wrong; «that'll be the day» means that will never happen. tree →
7) (formal) Exams say «per diem», «daily», «per day», «a period of N days» and «on a daily basis». tree →
sense in the lessons
one day of the calendar; a unit of time: «N every day for D days» is N × D; from day S to day E, both days count; the Earth turns once in a day; phrases: «every day», «a day», «per day», «all day», «one day», «day and night», «these days», «day off»; in casual talk «g'day», «call it a day», «back in the day», «not my day»; in rough talk «not my bloody day, dropped 3 eggs»; in the exam voice «on a daily basis», «per diem», «over a period of 6 days»
examples
- Anna reads 3 pages every day. tree →
- Zoe saves 4 cents a day for 6 days. tree →
- A fair runs from day 3 to day 9. tree →
- A day has 24 hours. tree →
- A week has 7 days. tree →
- We spent the whole day at the beach. tree →
- Owls sleep in the day and hunt at night. tree →
- G'day mate, how many snags for the barbie? tree →
- Not my bloody day, dropped 3 eggs and missed the bus. tree →
- Let's call it a day, we've done 20 sums. tree →
- A sum of 4 cents is deposited on a daily basis over a period of 6 days. Compute the aggregate saved. tree →
- Back in the day, Grandpa walked 5 kilometres to school. tree →
- She saw nought the first day. tree →
note
A day is 24 hours. A week is 7 days. «N every day for D days» is N × D. From day S to day E, both days count: E − S + 1. Trap: «a day» in «4 cents a day» means each day. «per diem», «daily» and «on a daily basis» in an exam mean each day. «back in the day» means long ago, not one day.
In the corpora
- Night shifts mean working through the night and sleeping in the day; nurses, drivers, bakers and warehouse workers often do them.
- Payday is the day pay arrives in the bank, often once a month, so money is usually lowest just before it.
- A "For Sale" board means the family has decided to sell the house, and selling usually takes months, not days.
- Coming home with flowers the day after a row is making up, a way of saying sorry and wanting to be friends again.
- Morning sickness is feeling or being sick in early pregnancy, and despite the name it can happen at any time of day.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «day» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.