man
part of speech
noun (man, men); verb (man, mans, manned, manning); interjection (man!)
meaning for a pupil
1) A man is a grown-up male person. tree →
2) Man can mean people in general (old use): «Man has walked on the Moon.» tree →
3) To man something is to work at it or be in charge of it: man the desk. tree →
4) In games, a man is a piece: a chess man. tree →
sense in the lessons
In maths a man is a person in the story; men are counted in groups (men and women add to make people) or work at a rate. In everyday life: «Ladies and gentlemen», a snowman, a postman, a fireman (now often firefighter). In stories men are characters: the old man, a wise man.
examples
- A man buys 3 shirts. tree →
- 5 men can paint a house in 4 days. tree →
- There are 12 men and 15 women. tree →
- How many people in all? tree →
- The man at the shop gave me my change. tree →
- My dad is a tall man with a beard. tree →
- We built a snowman in the garden. tree →
- Two men manned the lifeboat. tree →
- The old man fed the ducks every morning. tree →
- THE SHIPWRECKED MAN AND THE SEA tree →
note
Irregular plural: «men» (one man, two men; not «mans»). «Mankind» means all people; many now say «people» or «humankind». Many job words now avoid «-man»: firefighter, police officer, mail carrier. Maths: groups of men and women add. Trap: «men working together» may need rates, not simple adding.
In the corpora
- A widow is a woman whose husband has died, and a widower is a man whose wife has died.
- Scene: in Dublin, Nan sees a man with a tape measure outside the Kellys' house.
- A man who comes home at strange hours may be a hospital porter on night shifts.
- In November 2019 Prince Andrew stepped back from public duties after a BBC interview about his friendship with a man convicted of serious crimes.
- A long word for a yes-man is "sycophantic".
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «man» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.