pa
part of speech
noun (pa, pas) — informal; abbreviation (p.a., Pa)
meaning for a pupil
1) (informal, old-fashioned) Pa is a word for father or dad, used mostly in old stories and in some families. tree →
2) (abbreviation) p.a. means per annum, Latin for each year, as in a salary of 30,000 pounds p.a. tree →
3) (science) Pa is the short symbol for pascal, the unit for measuring pressure. tree →
4) (abbreviation) PA can mean a personal assistant (a helper at work) or a public address system (loudspeakers). tree →
5) (New Zealand, Maori) A pa is a Maori village or hill fort, often with fences and ditches. tree →
sense in the lessons
In old stories, such as books about farm families in America, children call their parents Ma and Pa. In science and weather, Pa (pascal) measures pressure; hPa (hectopascal) is used on weather maps. In everyday life the PA announces things at school or the station. In New Zealand history lessons a pa is a fortified Maori settlement.
examples
- Pa came home from the fields at sunset. tree →
- Ma and Pa sat by the fire and told stories. tree →
- The job pays 25,000 pounds p.a. tree →
- Air pressure is measured in pascals, written Pa. tree →
- The weather map showed 1010 hPa over the city. tree →
- The head teacher spoke over the PA system. tree →
- We visited an old Maori pa on a hill. tree →
- Her PA arranges all her meetings. tree →
- You see yo' pa pull his shut off? tree →
note
Pa (dad) is informal and old-fashioned; most children today say dad or daddy. Ma and Pa go together. Pa (pascal) has a capital P because the unit is named after Blaise Pascal. p.a. is usually written with dots and lower-case letters. Do not mix up pa with par (as in golf) or pah (a sound of disgust).
In the corpora
- After pas, des becomes de: J'ai des bonbons, but Je n'ai pas de bonbons.
- Ne goes before the verb and pas after it: je n'aime pas, il n'est pas là.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «pa» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.