Confusing English Words – ex- / former / previous

بسیاری از کلمات وجود دارند که معنی یکسانی دارند، اما در واقع تعاریف و کاربردهای مختلفی دارند. شما می خواهید درست صحبت کنید و از به کار بردن کلمات نادرست خودداری کنید، اما در مورد معنی دقیق و کاربرد هر کلمه کاملا مطمئن نیستید. بعضی از زبان آموزان حتی به دلیل تردیدهایشان از به کار بردن کلمات خودداری می کنند! هدف ما در این سری از پست ها روشن کردن رایج ترین کلمات گیج کننده در انگلیسی است.

ex- / former / previous

.”Previous means “immediately before,” and former means “at any time in the past

.Your former employer means any employer you have had in your past, at any time .Your previous employer typically means the most recent employer you had in your past .A former president is any of the many people who have held the position of president in the past .The previous president is the most recent president before the current one

We usually use ex– with romantic partners from the past: ex-husband, ex-wife, ex-boyfriend, ex-girlfriend. Another common term is ex-convict or ex-con: someone who has been convicted of a crime and spent time in prison, but has now been released

Although it’s possible to use ex- with other roles, it’s not very common. “Ex-” is rather informal. However, it is sometimes used in newspaper headlines to save space (Ex-leader of an organization, ex-foreign minister of a country, etc.)