Difference between revisions of "Language/English/Vocabulary/At-first-and-first"
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<div class="pg_page_title">"At first" and "first"</div> | |||
[[File:English-Language-PolyglotClub.jpg|thumb]] | [[File:English-Language-PolyglotClub.jpg|thumb]] | ||
==Beginning of a situation== | ==Beginning of a situation== | ||
'''We use "at first" to talk about the beginning of a situation, to make a contrast with something different that happens/happened later. "At first". . . is often followed by but.''' | '''We use "at first" to talk about the beginning of a situation, to make a contrast with something different that happens/happened later. "At first". . . is often followed by but.''' | ||
Revision as of 23:21, 29 March 2022
"At first" and "first"
Beginning of a situation
We use "at first" to talk about the beginning of a situation, to make a contrast with something different that happens/happened later. "At first". . . is often followed by but.
Examples:
- At first they were very happy, but then things started going wrong.
- The work was hard at first, but I got used to it.
In other cases
In other cases, we usually prefer first.
Examples:
- That's mine - I saw it first! (not . . .I saw it at first.)
- We lived there when we were first married. (= . . . in the early days of our marriage.) (not . . . when we were at first married.)
- First, I want to talk about the history of the problem. Second, I'll outline the situation today. Third, we'll discuss possible solutions. (not... At first, I want to talk . . .)
"First" in the last example is usage in American English. In British English, this example would be expressed as:
- Firstly, I want to talk about the history of the problem. Secondly, I'll outline the situation today. Thirdly, we'll discuss possible solutions.