tons
part of speech
noun (a ton, tons; tons of); plural of ton; adverb (informal: tons better)
meaning for a pupil
1) (informal) Tons, or "tons of", means a lot, a great amount: "I've got tons of homework." tree →
2) Tons is the plural of ton, a unit of weight: in the USA a (short) ton is 2,000 pounds (about 907 kg); in the UK an old (long) ton is 2,240 pounds (about 1,016 kg). tree →
3) A metric ton, usually spelled "tonne", is 1,000 kilograms. tree →
4) (informal) "Tons" can mean much: "She's tons better at chess than me." tree →
5) (UK, informal) "A ton" is also 100: "doing a ton" means 100 miles per hour, and in cricket a ton is a century (100 runs). tree →
sense in the lessons
In maths and science lessons tons and tonnes measure very heavy things: lorries, ships, whales and elephants. In everyday talk children say "tons of" all the time. Safety signs on bridges show maximum weight in tons/tonnes (with "t" as the symbol). Phrases: "tons of", "weigh a ton", "like a ton of bricks" (very hard).
examples
- I've got tons of homework tonight. tree →
- An elephant can weigh about 6 tons. tree →
- The bridge sign says lorries over 7.5 tonnes cannot cross. tree →
- My bag weighs a ton! (informal) tree →
- There were tons of people at the fair. tree →
- A blue whale weighs over 100 tons. tree →
- I feel tons better after a sleep. tree →
- He scored a ton in the cricket match, 100 runs. tree →
- Why, it would take us a year, possibly our whole lives, to eat up twelve oxen and twelve tons of bread.’ tree →
note
Trap: ton (US 2,000 lb, UK 2,240 lb) and tonne (1,000 kg) are different; in maths problems use the unit given, and "metric ton" means tonne. 1 tonne = 1,000 kg, so 3 tonnes = 3,000 kg. "Tons of" with uncountable or plural nouns is informal: in exam writing use "a lot of" or "many". Do not confuse ton with "tun" (a large barrel).
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «tons» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.