is homework an adjective or a noun

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[ hohm -wurk ]

• schoolwork assigned to be done outside the classroom ( distinguished from classwork ).
• a single assignment of such schoolwork: Homeworks are due at the beginning of class.
• paid work done at home , as piecework.

to do one's homework for the next committee meeting.

/ ˈhəʊmˌwɜːk /

• school work done out of lessons, esp at home
• any preparatory study
• work done at home for pay

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Word history and origins.

Origin of homework 1

Idioms and Phrases

Example sentences.

Now, they log on to Zoom from their bedrooms, surrounded by unfinished homework assignments and tattered stuffed animals, waiting to be assigned calls, texts and emails by the trained therapists who oversee the program.

Yow started her homework and saw Frese had gone 35-22 with two winning seasons at Ball State, which hadn’t had a winning record in its previous nine seasons.

Do some homework before investing in a diamond, and that lifelong commitment.

Another poster included an image of their losses over what appeared to be online math homework.

As we countdown to Inauguration Day, I've been doing my homework—and looking to the past for inspiration.

“I can help my children with their homework and sometimes we text in English at my job,” Santos says.

Scheunemann, meanwhile, had no idea who Spencer was, and did some homework.

She jumped at the chance to watch RT, or jumped at the chance to skip calculus homework.

And we encourage parent-student “contracts,” for class attendance, homework submission and even extra-curriculum activities.

Adicéam did his homework, spending 50 days collecting pieces, many with unexpected stories behind them.

Much of this homework is done by a very bad light and the boy's eyes suffer much.

For homework we have prepared alphabets where the letters are printed in type-writing order.

His parents were always getting angry with him for losing his clothes, or his toys, or his homework.

Only at the time when he was going to Beauregard School, with his homework.

And once a week or twice a week she was sending her homework or something to him.

Related Words

• arrangement
• construction
• establishment
• preparedness
• qualification

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

Noun as Adjective

As you know, a noun is a person, place or thing, and an adjective is a word that describes a noun:

Sometimes we use a noun to describe another noun. In that case, the first noun "acts as" an adjective.

The "noun as adjective" always comes first

If you remember this, it will help you to understand what is being talked about:

• a race horse is a horse that runs in races
• a horse race is a race for horses
• a boat race is a race for boats
• a love story is a story about love
• a war story is a story about war
• a tennis ball is a ball for playing tennis
• tennis shoes are shoes for playing tennis
• a computer exhibition is an exhibition of computers
• a bicycle shop is a shop that sells bicycles

The "noun as adjective" is singular

Just like a real adjective, the "noun as adjective" is invariable. It is usually in the singular form.

In other words, if there is a plural it is on the real noun only.

A few nouns look plural but we usually treat them as singular (for example news, billiards, athletics). When we use these nouns "as adjectives" they are unchanged:

• a news reporter, three news reporters
• one billiards table, four billiards tables
• an athletics trainer, fifty athletics trainers

Exceptions : When we use certain nouns "as adjectives" (clothes, sports, customs, accounts, arms), we use them in the plural form:

• clothes shop, clothes shops
• sports club, sports clubs
• customs duty, customs duties
• accounts department, accounts departments
• arms production

How do we write the "noun as adjective"?

We write the "noun as adjective" and the real noun in several different ways:

• two separate words (car door)
• two hyphenated words (book-case)
• one word (bathroom)

There are no easy rules for this. We even write some combinations in two or all three different ways: (head master, head-master, headmaster)

How do we say the "noun as adjective"?

For pronunciation, we usually stress the first word:

Can we have more than one "noun as adjective"?

Yes. Just like adjectives, we often use more than one "noun as adjective" together. Look at these examples:

car production costs: we are talking about the costs of producing cars

England football team coach: we are talking about the coach who trains the team that plays football for England

Note: in England football team coach can you see a "hidden" "noun as adjective"? Look at the word "football" (foot-ball). These two nouns (foot+ball) have developed into a single noun (football). This is one way that words evolve. Many word combinations that use a "noun as adjective" are regarded as nouns in their own right, with their own dictionary definition. But not all dictionaries agree with each other. For example, some dictionaries list "tennis ball" as a noun and other dictionaries do not.

government road accident research centre: we are talking about a centre that researches into accidents on the road for the government

Newspapers often use many nouns together in headlines to save space. Look at this example:

To understand headlines like these, try reading them backwards. The above headline is about a MYSTERY concerning a MURDER in a CENTRE for RESEARCH into the HEALTH of BIRDS.

• empty coffee jar
• honest car salesman
• delicious dog food
• rising car production costs
• famous England football team coach

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Teaching grammar basics: adjectives

By Oliver Shrouder

08 Nov 2022

In this article:

What is an adjective?

Adjectives and nouns, types of adjectives, the descriptive (simple) adjective, the compound adjective, the numerical adjective, the quantitative adjective, the proper adjective, the demonstrative adjective, the interrogative adjective, the possessive adjective, the exclamatory adjective, adjectives or adverbs, rules for using adjectives, forming adjectives from verbs, adjective activities, describe yourself, simplify the sentences, match the adjectives, adjective intensity, how bedrock learning teaches adjectives.

Grammar is one of the most important aspects of language. All students, regardless of their age, benefit from a strong understanding of it.

A recent study facilitated by Bedrock Learning showed that 97% of teachers said grammar was vitally important for teaching and aids directly in a reader’s comprehension. The understanding of grammar forms a foundation for clear and confident communication, which allows every student to understand the English language to a much greater depth. In this article, we will look at some basic grammar rules behind adjectives and present some exercises to help your students understand them.

Simply put, adjectives are words which modify nouns and pronouns. They are one of the most widely used aspects of grammar and are most often called “describing words”.

In the classroom, learners are encouraged to use adjectives in their work to provide more detail in a sentence, as well as making the writing more engaging for a reader. Often, younger learners can get carried away with the action and movement of a story, and forget to think about what things look like, or where the story takes place. Adjectives allow writers to provide these descriptions to a reader and communicate how a story looks in their head to their readers.

From an early age, learners use simple adjectives in their writing to communicate how something looks or feels, using words such as “blue” or “scary” to provide detail - for example, a blue, scary ghost. However, from Year 3 onwards, learners are expected to select more sophisticated adjectives , using synonyms to craft the most effective description.

Your learners will discover that changing a phrase such as “the scary man” to “the menacing man” gives a new meaning to the phrase. Though “scary” and “menacing” are considered synonyms, only the latter provides further clarification and gives the phrase much more depth.

Adjectives are words which learners encounter at every stage of their education and are vital when explaining something or helping a learner to visualise a story. In sentences, adjectives are used to give clarification about a noun and can be placed in different positions to change the effect. Although we usually use adjectives to add more detail, there are many types of adjectives, all of which we use every day.

Here are some examples of these adjectives in use:

• To describe
• The charming man, the fluffy dog
• Both of my friends, the eighth slice of cake
• To quantify
• Two sports cars, five eggs in the nest
• To demonstrate
• That flower, those houses
• To interrogate
• Which umbrella?
• My umbrella is over here
• What an idea!

The everyday English speaker may not be aware that some of these words are adjectives, or how often they are used in everyday conversation. Learning about these adjectives is vital for effective communication and allows students to both describe the world around them with accuracy, as well as understand how this world is communicated to them.

Adjectives and nouns always appear together. A noun is a “naming word” for objects, people, places and more , acting as the subjects or objects of a sentence.

An adjective is a word that modifies this noun and gives it a new quality through a new description. When selecting an adjective, it is important to choose one which describes something new about a noun. If you describe water as wet, you are adding nothing new to the noun and, as a result, the adjective has no purpose. However, if you describe water as warm, or fizzy, the noun takes on a new quality, as these aspects are not already known.

Sometimes, nouns can act like adjectives. We can describe a noun with another noun, such as a boat race, or a sports team. In these phrases there is no adjective, but the noun has been modified by its reference to another noun. Similarly, we can describe a group of people as the elderly, or the rich. These are known as adjectival nouns, and we can spot these by looking for the article “the” which always appears first.

The most common misconception about adjectives is that there is only one type: the “describing word”. Though this is the most frequent use of an adjective, it is far from its only use. Here, we will explore the many types of adjectives, and how they can be used by students and teachers alike.

A descriptive adjective is the type of adjective you are most likely to encounter in the classroom, as well as in everyday conversation. Descriptive adjectives add meaning to a noun or pronoun by describing its qualities which do not appear otherwise in the sentence. There are thousands of adjectives to choose from, and each of them changes the noun they describe.

To find where a descriptive adjective is used in a sentence, it is important to identify the subject, the object, and the verb. Take this sentence for example:

• He wants to buy an enormous house.

“He” is the subject of the sentence, as a subject performs an action. As the action of the sentence is buying, this makes “buy” the verb in the sentence. This makes “house” the object, as the house is the thing being involved, or impacted, by the action. Now that we know where the object, subject, and verb are placed, we can look at the object in focus. The house is described as “enormous”; this describes to a reader what the house looks like.

The descriptive adjective can come in two forms. The first, which a learner is most likely to encounter, is the simple adjective. A simple adjective can describe emotions, taste, appearance, colour, and shape:

• The green book.
• The scary darkness.
• The knights of the round table.

The second form is a compound adjective. These descriptors are adjectives combined with a hyphen, and are used the same way as simple adjectives:

• The mouth-watering smell of dinner.
• A right-handed student.

Both types of descriptive adjectives provide new information about a noun, helping a reader to learn more about the details of a sentence. Each of them provides a quality to the noun, which was not present before, and reveals a deeper meaning to the information within a sentence.

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Rather than describing the quality of a noun, numerical adjectives denote the quantity of a noun present. The use of numerical adjectives is important for maintaining clarity and gives exact information regarding amounts:

• There are six apples on the tree.
• I am the second in line.
• Only twelve miles to go!

The examples above are called definite numerical adjectives, as they provide exact information about the number of things in a context. Not only do they provide clarity in English, but this adjective technique highlights the link between improving literacy and success in Maths .

Quantitative adjectives are used when nouns are uncountable in nature, whereas definite numerical adjectives are only used when something is countable.

If we look at the sentence “Friday is the fifth day of the week”, we know that fifth is a definite numerical adjective, as it can be counted. Words such as few or little are quantitative adjectives, as they refer to an amount that cannot be counted. These adjectives are also known as indefinite numerical adjectives, as they provide inexact, or tentative, information about the number of people or things.

Examples of a quantitative adjective are:

• All of my sweets are gone.
• Several apples fell from the tree.
• Any colour will do!

Unlike definite numerical adjectives, these adjectives do not refer to any specific amount. Instead, they are used to provide a general amount, a quantity of a noun rather than the number.

To understand the proper adjective, you must first understand the proper noun. A proper noun is the name of a specific person or place , such as Elizabeth, Spain, or Shakespeare. Some proper adjectives, like the examples given above, can be modified into an adjective, and you can do this in two ways:

Shakespeare is a specific person, and his name is a proper noun. As Shakespeare had such a unique writing style, the adjective Shakespearean can be used to describe writing which is like Shakespeare’s own.

• That movie was amazing! It had a brilliant Shakespearean writing style.

Spain is a specific place, and its name is a proper noun. As people from Spain are referred to as Spanish, it can be modified into a proper adjective.

• I saw my Spanish friend last week.

Proper adjectives are used to make a sentence as specific as possible.

It is important to remember that all proper nouns begin with capital letters, just like the proper nouns they are modified from.

The demonstrative adjective is a less used adjective and is sometimes called a determiner. The demonstrative adjective identifies the position of a noun or pronoun, and gives information about its distance from the speaker.

The four demonstrative adjectives are “this”, “that”, “these” and “those”. Like the adjectives so far, demonstrative adjectives come before the noun in the sentence:

• This bottle is by my feet.
• That bottle is over there.
• These shoes are next to me.
• Those shoes are on the shoe rack.

Demonstrative adjectives work with time as well as with objects. The sentence, “This evening was amazing!” tells us that the “evening” was close to the speaker, whereas the sentence, “That weekend was so boring!” tells us the weekend happened in the past.

However, a student might make two mistakes here:

Firstly, it is important to remember that these adjectives are not the same as demonstrative pronouns. Adjectives always refer to a noun (“these flowers”), whereas a demonstrative pronoun is on its own. In the phrase “Ow! That is sharp!” we see “that” used as a pronoun, as it replaces the name of the object.

Secondly, it is important to remember the number of objects that you are talking about. “These flower in my hand” is incorrect, as there is only one flower. “Those type of things” is incorrect too, as “type” should be a plural. Learners may stumble remembering which demonstrative adjectives go with singular and which with plural nouns.

Interrogative adjectives are unique, as they modify a noun by asking a question.

Some examples of interrogative adjectives are “what”, “which” and “whose”, and these are also known as interrogative determiners. To know which of these to use in a question, you need to know which way the question should be answered. If you do not know the options available, you could ask “What options are there?” If you know the options, you could ask “Which options are available?” If the option is a person, you could ask “Whose options are these?”

• Whose homework is this?
• What kind of snack would you like?
• Did he ask you which movie is your favourite?

A student may make the mistake of confusing an interrogative adjective with an interrogative pronoun. An interrogative pronoun is followed by a verb, rather than a noun, and substitutes for a noun in a question. In the phrase “Which did you want?”, the word “which” has replaced the noun in the sentence, rather than modifying it.

The possessive pronoun sits before a noun or a pronoun to indicate who, or what, owns it. Possessive adjectives are also known as possessive determiners. The most common possessive adjectives are “my”, “your”, “his”, “her”, “its” and “our”. These all correspond to the pronoun of the subject in the sentence:

• John put his plate away.
• Sarah and James took their football to the park.
• I hid my new game.

In each of these examples, we see the ownership of the object in relation to the subject. When finding out which possessive adjective to use, it is crucial to know the pronoun of the person or thing in the sentence. If a dog was itchy, it would scratch its ear. If your spaniel, Susan, was itchy, she would scratch her ear.

Here, we can see that the adjective changes depending on the gender of the subject. If the subject does not have a gender, you can use “its” (for inanimate objects) or “their” (for groups, or when the gender is not known).

A potential error your learners may make when learning possessive adjectives is spelling. Some of the most used possessive adjectives are homonyms to different words, and it is important to make the distinction between them in the classroom.

• Today is your special day!
• The dog wagged its tail.

Both are often confused with the contractions you’re and it’s, which do not make grammatical sense when used in these sentences.

To help your students remember which to use, think of the contractions being full words. If you heard someone say, “Today is you are special day!” it wouldn’t make any sense.

Exclamatory adjectives are a combination of adjective and exclamation and are used to express heightened emotions. If you are feeling especially happy, you might shout out “What a wonderful day!”. In this sentence, the word what is an exclamatory adjective, a word which amplifies the emotion being felt alongside a noun.

• How smart is Nadia!
• What a beautiful cave painting!

Each of these adjectives refers to the named noun in the sentence and expresses how a speaker is feeling about them. In the first sentence, the speaker expresses surprise and happiness about the intelligence of Nadia. In the second, the speaker is in awe, stressing the importance of the painting.

Often, these exclamations are paired with descriptive adjectives. This allows for a reader to understand the aspect of a noun that a speaker is highlighting. If someone shouts, “What a beautiful rendition of that song!” we learn that the speaker is happy about the song they are hearing, because they find it beautiful.

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Two groups of words which are often confused are adjectives and adverbs. As we have already seen, adjectives modify nouns to give them more detail and meaning. The primary difference between them is that an adverb cannot modify a noun. However, an adverb can modify verbs. An easy way to tell these apart is the suffix -ly, which appears at the end of most adverbs:

• The large man scratched his head thoughtfully .
• I think I got the question wrong. I wasn’t thinking quickly !

In these examples, we can see adverbs in action. Rather than describing a noun to provide visual information, an adverb tells us how something occurs, or how something is done. In most cases, it does not make sense grammatically to use an adverb before a noun, so we find them after the verb in a sentence.

Now that you know all about adjectives, it is important to make sure you know where common errors occur , and how to ensure your students don’t trip up.

Take the sentence below:

• I want to go to the Tudor blue old big house down the road!

For native speakers of English, this sentence probably feels wrong, but it’s difficult to articulate why; this is because the grammar technique at play here is usually learned incidentally, rather than taught explicitly. The rule of order of adjectives is being broken here. When listing more than one adjective, you begin with a quantity, then your opinion, then size, then age, then shape, then colour, then material, and finally the qualifier. When following this rule, the sentence becomes:

• I want to go to the big old blue Tudor house down the road!

This sentence sounds more natural to speak, even if you had not known the rule beforehand. This hierarchy of importance is something we learn incidentally as an English speaker, although people are unsure how this rule came to be. Even when we don’t use all of the categories, we continue to follow this order.

How many adjectives should you use? There is no definite answer, but there are ways to find out for yourself. Which of these sentences do you prefer?

• A face appeared at the window.
• A scary, pale, ghoulish face appeared at the window.

When comparing these two sentences, the first sentence feels punchier, as the information in the sentence is given to you much quicker. However, the first sentence does not give us any more information about the face. Was it a friend at the window, or was it a ghost? Only the second sentence tells us.

As a result, it is important to find a balance between delivering information quickly, and making sure a reader knows all the important aspects of the moment. If you hear a knock at the door, you might go and answer it. However, if you hear a loud, thumping knock at the door, you might think twice before you open it. This links to lessons you might deliver on the effects of sentence structure.

In English, it is possible to create an adjective from a verb, which results in participles. A present participle ends with -ing, whereas a past participle ends with -ed:

• The movie was exciting .
• I was excited by the movie.

In the first sentence, a present participle is used. This is because the sentence describes the effect the movie has on someone. However, the second sentence uses a past participle as it describes how someone was affected by the movie. Remember, when you are describing an inanimate object, you use a present participle.

However, when you describe a person, you use a present participle:

• I don’t find books interesting .
• Really? I am very interested in books.

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Below are some activities which you can use in the classroom, each of which can help your learners become more comfortable with adjectives!

Ask your learners to describe themselves in a sentence using adjectives! Remember to make sure they use the rule of order. You could begin with describing yourself, then maybe move on to family members, fictional characters or celebrities.

Create a series of riddles for your learners and see if they can figure out the animal from the adjectives. Some examples are below:

• I am fluffy and fast, and I have a wagging tail. I am a dog!
• I am a fast swimmer, and I have a sensitive nose. I am a shark!
• I am fluffy and striped, and I have a painful sting. I am a bumblebee!
• I am fast and striped, and I am black and white all over! I am a zebra!
• I am slow and slimy, with a large shell on my back. I am a snail!

Create a series of sentences, in which there are far too many adjectives. Ask your students to take out the unnecessary adjectives from each sentence. Ask them to explain why they have removed each adjective and see if they understand what makes a word necessary. Some examples are below:

• The scruffy, small, thin, old, spotted dog.
• The beautiful, huge, clean Elizabethan mansion.
• The delicious, colourful Italian dinner.
• The rusty, broken, old, blue, metal car. 

If you want to make this activity more difficult, you can also place the adjectives in a random order. See if your students can order them correctly!

Create a series of synonyms for adjectives on cards and ask your learners to pair up the adjectives which have the same meaning. Some examples of pairs are below:

• Angry and furious.
• Smart and intelligent.
• Funny and humorous.
• Warm and welcoming.

Give learners a pair of adjectives and ask them to identify which of the adjectives is more intense. Alternatively, you can ask your learners if a word could be made more intense, or if a word could be made even softer.

Some examples are:

• Pop or explode.
• Singe or ignite. 
• Little or tiny.
• Large or massive.
• Quick or rapid.

Bedrock’s grammar curriculum teaches simple adjective rules at first, introducing learners to the concept of describing nouns, before moving onto more complex adjective rules and techniques. Each lesson is taught through engaging video activities and bespoke prose, before learning is solidified through contextualising activities and mastery tasks.

Teachers and educators can monitor progress through consistent low-stakes assessment, with data processed and presented neatly in the reporting area of your dashboard. All prose and teaching is differentiated for primary and secondary, solidifying necessary grammar skills as learners progress through school.

Accurate grammar is a skill necessary for your learners’ success throughout their academic careers, and their whole lives, but it isn’t always the most engaging lesson to teach. Through Bedrock’s video teaching and human narration, teachers can save time on marking while knowing their learners are being motivated to learn grammar independently, gaining the mastery they need to apply their knowledge to reading and writing.

Bedrock’s grammar curriculum sits alongside vocabulary to form a comprehensive literacy solution. To find out more about how grammar can benefit your primary and secondary learners, click the link below and start your free trial of Bedrock’s core curriculum.

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23 Oct 2022

08 Mar 2022

• Cambridge Dictionary +Plus

Meaning of adjective in English

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• In the sentence 'She is happy ', ' happy ' is a predicative adjective.
• Complete the sentence with one of the adjectives provided .
• You can change the adjective ' sweet ' into a noun by adding the suffix '-ness' to the end of the word.
• In 'a sudden movement ', ' sudden ' is an adjective in the attributive position .
• I don't think I'd call it a beautiful picture - ' interesting ' might be a better adjective to use!
• abstract noun
• adjectivally
• common noun
• concrete noun
• conjunction
• countable noun
• part of speech
• relative pronoun

Related words

Adjective | intermediate english, examples of adjective, translations of adjective.

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a unit for measuring the loudness of sound

Varied and diverse (Talking about differences, Part 1)

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Definition of adjective noun from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

• ‘Reliable’ is not an adjective that could be applied to my car.
• ‘My’ is a possessive adjective.
• Adjectives qualify nouns.
• Attributive adjectives precede the noun.
• Predicative adjectives follow the noun.
• adjectives describing texture
• attributive
• predicative
• comparative

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Find out which words work together and produce more natural-sounding English with the Oxford Collocations Dictionary app. Try it for free as part of the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary app.

Usage Notes

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Is homework a noun or a verb?

Homework is a noun. Ex:

I am doing my homework .

Go do your homework .

You have homework tonight.

It is a noun because it is a thing YEY.

The word homework is a noun ; a word for a form of study or preparation; a word for a thing.

Example: I hate this stupid homework. ( homework is the noun and stupid is the adjective that describes the homework)

No, the word 'homework' is a noun , a word for a thing.

A pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun in a sentence.

I do have some homework but it is almost finished. (the pronoun 'it' takes the place of the noun 'homework' in the second part of the sentence)

The word 'task' is a noun and a verb.

• The noun 'task' is a word for a piece of work to be assigned or done; a word for a thing.
• The verb 'task' means to assign a piece of work; a word for an action.

Each volunteer will be assigned a task . (noun)

I can task the purchasing manager to finding the unit. (verb)

The word homework is a noun, a common, abstract, compound noun; a word for a form of study or preparation, a word for a thing.

Anonymous ∙

alliteration

Add your answer:

What is a objective noun?

An 'object noun' is a noun that functions as the object of a verb or a preposition.Examples:The dog ate my homework. (the noun 'homework is the direct object of the verb 'ate')I gave the teacher flowers. (the noun 'teacher' is the indirect object of the verb 'gave'; the direct object is the noun 'flowers')The teacher gave me an A for effort. (the noun 'effort' is the object of the preposition 'for')

Is finish a possessive adjective?

No, the word 'finish' is a noun (finish, finishes) and a verb (finish, finishes, finishing, finished).Examples:The finish on her table is in perfect condition. (noun)I can finish my homework after work. (verb)A possessive adjective is a pronoun that is placed before a noun to describe that noun as belonging to someone or something.The possessive adjectives are: my, your, our, his, her, their, its.Examples:The finish on her table is in perfect condition. (noun)I can finish my homework after work. (verb)

What is the plural form of the word homework?

The collective noun for the noun 'homework' is a slew of homework.

Is does followed by singular verb?

No.Does is a singular verb, it is the third person singular form of do. Use does with third person singular pronouns - he she it - or singular noun subjects eg:He does his homework every night.The boy does his homework every night.

What is the abstract noun for please?

The abstract noun form for the verb to please is the gerund, pleasing.A related abstract noun form is pleasure.

Is homework a action verb?

No, homework is not a verb. The word homework is a noun, an uncountable, common, compound, abstract noun, a word for a thing.

What part of speech is copies?

Copy can be a verb or a noun. Verb: Please copy the homework assignment from the board. Noun: You must provide a copy of your license.

What is the noun form of debate?

The word debate is both a noun and a verb; for example: Noun: Frank will participate in the debate with Springfield High. Verb: They will debate the positives and the negatives of homework. Noun forms for the verb to debate are debater and debatement.

Is 'did' a noun?

No, did is the past tense for the verb do. Example use:I do want to go to the movie.I did go to the movie.No, the word 'did' is the past tense of the verb to do.Examples:When are you going to do your homework?I already did my homework. (Honest!)

What does the french word devoirs mean?

It can be the verb 'must' or as a noun it can mean duty, les devoirs usually means homework (from school).

Is the contraction who've a noun pronoun or verb?

The contraction who've is a short form for the pronoun who and the verbhave. The contraction functions as a subject and verb (or auxiliary verb) in a sentnece. Example:Students who have handed in their essay will have no homework this weekend.ORStudents who've handed in their essay will have no homework this weekend.

Is help a verb?

Yes, help is used as a verb and also as a noun.I help my kids with their homework whenever I can. (verb)I offered help when my neighbor's car wouldn't start. (noun)

What is the collective for homework?

What is the french 'devoir' in english.

noun: "les devoirs" means "homework." Verb devoir means: Should or must

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ESL Classes Offered to BU Dining Services Workers

Dining Services worker Carlos Surillo (left), with his completion certificate, alongside instructor Gina Giamei, a CELOP senior lecturer. Photo by Jake Belcher

Recent graduation ceremony celebrated their hard work and commitment

Amy laskowski.

For the last 12 weeks, during the lull between the lunch and dinner shifts at Warren Towers, BU Dining Services employee Kerrine Tang has been working hard to improve her English. Tang, a native Cantonese speaker from Hong Kong and a 16-year Dining Services employee, enrolled in the relatively new BU Center for English Language & Orientation Programs (CELOP) course English for Dining Services.

The program is designed to teach Dining Services employees the essential English language skills they need to do their jobs more efficiently. These skills include writing, vocabulary around cleanliness and sanitation, enhanced communication about allergies and dietary restrictions with customers (i.e., students) and other staff, and understanding written recipes and instructions, as well as a tutorial in the quirks and rules of the English language.

Consider the “th” sound, which exists in virtually no other language, or how certain English nouns (eyeglasses, salmon) are the same whether they are singular or plural. Although English is the most spoken language in the world , it is also considered one of the toughest to learn.

“I took an English class over 20 years ago at my church, but it was all old ladies,” Tang says during a recent break in the class. She wanted to enroll in this class because she knew it could help her better communicate with her manager at Warren Towers. “And my grandchildren,” she says with a smile.

To date, the free twice-a-week program has graduated nearly 50 students in three cohorts—with more eager to start in the fall. There are also talks about creating a second level of the class during future semesters. Dining Services managers, the CELOP team, and perhaps most important, its students, say the program has been a resounding success. 

When course instructor Gina Giamei , a CELOP senior lecturer, designed the program last year, she shadowed Dining Services workers to see what language skills they needed. The answer was “everything,” she says: listening skills, speaking, reading, writing, building confidence, and new this semester, a digital literacy component. “I’m cocreating these classes with the students, getting the information from them about what they need,” says Giamei, who has been at CELOP for 18 years and teaching ESL courses for 13 years prior to that. “It’s been a joy to teach them. They are so motivated and so grateful. It makes my job easy.”

It’s been a joy to teach them. They are so motivated and so grateful. It makes my job easy. Gina Giamei

“To learn a language while also working at the same time, as well as managing families and personal lives? It’s really difficult,” says Maria Arruda , CELOP managing director. “Some [students] even have two jobs. It’s an amazing accomplishment.” Arruda says that CELOP would love to offer similar ESL workplace programs to other staff departments at BU in the future. 

Increasing confidence

The program’s spring cohort had 18 Dining Services employees, whose native tongues included Spanish, Burmese, Cantonese, French, Haitian Creole, and Amharic. Many of the students, who need their manager’s approval to enroll, say they found out about the program through word-of-mouth.

CELOP’s placement tests are usually digital, but while designing this high beginner–low intermediate level course, Giamei realized many students had issues with digital literacy, so she incorporated some lessons into the classes. These included topics like how to write an email and set up voicemail, using digital menus, and using a translation app on a phone.

She says she’s been impressed with the workers’ dedication (some even asked for extra homework) and their commitment to building community and helping each other. “Their managers have said how they have noticed increased confidence,” says Giamei, beaming. “That was really important to me.”

In one recent class, they talked about shopping, covering topics like when to use the articles “a” or “an,” the difference between the verbs “need” and “want,” and how to use color as an adjective. Giamei says that sometimes students are more challenged by language points (like grammar and pronunciation) in English that vary only slightly in their native tongues. For instance, in Spanish, an adjective usually follows a noun (“a dress blue”), but in English, the adjective comes first (“a blue dress”). 

Giamei reads the phrase “a purple skirt” out loud. “Skerrrrrt,” she says, and the class repeats. “That’s better,” she replies.

They then review the differences between “this,” “that,” “these,” and “those.”

“What is that ?” she asks.

“ That is a blue dress,” a student calls out.

“Good!” Giamei says. “He used ‘that’ because it is far away.” 

Now, the lesson gets trickier. “What are these?” she says, pointing to pants, a plural noun, although in this case the word refers to only one item. “Aye-aye-aye,” a student responds, and the class laughs. They move on to practicing conversational English—asking and answering questions, handling money, how to talk about receipts. 

Pomp and Circumstance

CELOP and Dining Services organized a small graduation ceremony for the employees on May 3 to celebrate the end of the course. The organizers invited students’ families, managers, and supporting staff to attend. 

Jon Webster, director of Dining Services, says the ceremony is one of his favorite things his team does during the year. “I think lowering the barrier of communication so that we can all talk to each other is a great way to make friends, and a way to make a great and more productive work environment,” he said at the ceremony. “It’s not necessarily the most comfortable thing to learn a new language. So we’re really celebrating you guys taking the opportunity to do that.” 

“We’re delighted this program is here,” says Paul Riel, associate vice president of Auxiliary Services, which oversees Dining Services. “We love the results of this program and like the way that people are able to do their work and get the opportunity to also study,” and take full advantage of the fact that BU is an educational institution. 

Mark Yates, food service director at Warren Towers, says he’s seen a “tremendous improvement” in the English skills of his employees who’ve taken the class. “It’s not just a benefit to me as their manager, it has helped them communicate with students. For example, they can answer questions about the menu. They’ve also told me it has helped them feel a lot more comfortable in their daily lives, like at the grocery store.”

Graduate Witney Chow, who is from Myanmar, says she learned about the class from her manager and wanted to sign up to improve her English. Before, she says, “I was nervous, afraid to speak. Now, people can understand me more.” 

Classmate Tang volunteered to deliver a short speech at the ceremony and worked with Giamei to help translate it. “This course is a turning point in my life,” Tang said, as she read carefully from a piece of paper in front of the audience. “Now, I dare to speak. I learned English grammar, and I am confident to take further steps to improve my English skills. Thank you for opening doors.”

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Amy Laskowski is a senior writer at Boston University. She is always hunting for interesting, quirky stories around BU and helps manage and edit the work of BU Today ’s interns. She did her undergrad at Syracuse University and earned a master’s in journalism at the College of Communication in 2015. Profile

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