sam

«sam» in Mova's school dictionary: A common first name for boys and girls, short for Samuel… — 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

proper noun (Sam); name

meaning for a pupil

1) A common first name for boys and girls, short for Samuel, Samantha or Samson; it is a name, not an ordinary word. tree →

2) «Uncle Sam» is a nickname for the government of the USA. tree →

3) (casual) Friends shorten or change it: «Sammy», «Sam-Sam»; in texts «Sam's» can mean Sam's house: «at Sam's». tree →

4) (formal) In formal writing the full name or a description replaces it: «Samuel», «the aforementioned pupil», «the first boy». tree →

sense in the lessons

In school maths word problems «Sam» is often a character: «Sam has 12 marbles and gives 5 away». The name tells you who has the things; it does not change the numbers. Written with a capital S because it is a name. In casual talk: «Sam's mum», «going to Sam's». In the exam voice: «a pupil, hereinafter referred to as Sam». Phrases: «Uncle Sam», «at Sam's».

examples

• Sam has 8 apples and eats 3. tree →
• Sam and Lily shared 20 sweets equally. tree →
• My best friend Sam lives next door. tree →
• Sam is short for Samantha. tree →
• Uncle Sam stands for the United States. tree →
• Sam ran 2 km more than Ben. tree →
• sam's got 12 marbles, gave me 5, he's well sad now (casual) tree →
• going to Sam's after footy, back by 6 (casual) tree →
• Oi Sam, give us 2 of them or else. (rough) tree →
• A pupil, hereinafter referred to as Sam, possesses 8 apples and consumes 3; ascertain the quantity remaining. (formal exam) tree →

note

A name: always a capital S. Can be a boy or a girl, so read the story for «he» or «she». In word problems, keep track of what Sam has before and after. «Sam's» can mean belonging to Sam or Sam's house. «Give us 2» (UK casual) means give me 2. Trap: two characters (Sam and Ben) — keep their amounts apart.

In the corpora

• Mum pins a rota on the fridge: "Freya this Friday, Sam next Friday.
• Sam got full marks on bot homework and then failed the test.
• Sam takes a bot's story, changes three words and calls it his own.
• You remember Sam, Mia, Jake and Lily, but you never had a body or sat on a chair.
• Sam, Mia, Jake, Lily, Connor, Chloe and Maddie were characters, and real people are richer than any story.

Trees and pragmatics

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