關於Atom的意思和用法的提問

A: In scientific terms, an Atom is a particle of an element

A: Hiya Learning Star.

I am British English, and a native speaker. I'm happy to help if I can. I'm a refugee from the once-active italki discussion boards, and this is the only substitute I have found! My knowledge of US English is strictly limited.

I live in Cambridge, in the south of England, about 80 miles (130 kilometres) north of London. This is in the main southern-accent zone; the broad geographical area in the south and centre of England where the accent is divided between specific regional variants for some people, and a widespread more or less "standard English" across the whole area for the more "educated" section of the population.

My accent would probably be regarded as in the (quite wide) band of standard British English - so "posh" for some people, "nothern" for some people from Surrey and "common" for some public school alumni ;) And normal for me.

The word "pupil" is absolutely still in use in British English. It's not an exclusive word: "schoolchildren" and sometimes "schoolchild" can also be heard (and read) a lot, alongside "student". Historically - and still, strictly, in formal English - "student" is reserved for older, more independent learners - people studying at college and university. But the courtesy usage of "student" spread a while ago to sixth formers - students at school or sixth form college, usually aged 16 to 18 or 19, and is now spreading towards secondary schoolers (age 11 to 18 or 19 - many secondary schools include a sixth form) and even towards primary school pupils. Checking today on primary school (age 4 to 11) websites, student is even spreading into use for this younger age group, though I found far more common use of "children" or "pupils" for these. Looking around, primary schools, more traditional schools and some private schools - fee-paying schools - still favour "pupil", while many of the other schools are now using "student."

So do feel free to use pupil in British English if you want to! So far as I can see it's still in widespread use, and dominant alongside "schoolchild" for younger children. But "student" won't upset anyone - probably - though some may find it amusing when applied to younger children.

I'll check ngram viewer: sometimes it's helpful, although not always. And the written language is not always the same as the spoken language, for English.

I hope this helps!

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=secondary+school+student%2C+secondary+school+pupil&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&case_insensitive=on&corpus=29&smoothing=3&direct_url=t4%3B%2Csecondary%20school%20student%3B%2Cc0%3B%2Cs0%3B%3Bsecondary%20school%20student%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BSecondary%20school%20student%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BSecondary%20School%20Student%3B%2Cc0%3B.t4%3B%2Csecondary%20school%20pupil%3B%2Cc0%3B%2Cs0%3B%3Bsecondary%20school%20pupil%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BSecondary%20School%20pupil%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BSecondary%20school%20pupil%3B%2Cc0

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=primary+school+student%2Cprimary+school+pupil&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=29&smoothing=3&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cprimary%20school%20student%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cprimary%20school%20pupil%3B%2Cc0

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=secondary+school+student%2Csecondary+school+pupil&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=29&smoothing=3&direct_url=t1%3B%2Csecondary%20school%20student%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Csecondary%20school%20pupil%3B%2Cc0

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=private+student%2Cprivate+pupil&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=29&smoothing=3&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cprivate%20student%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cprivate%20pupil%3B%2Cc0

A: "AtomS ARE the basic building blockS.." or you could say "THE atom is the basic building block..."