athletic / athletics

Question

Hi,please,according to a dictionary "athletics" is a noun, "athletic" is an adjective.In an exercise I have just looked at you must change the word in brackets and complete the sentence. There is this:My dad used to be really fit and was on his college __________ team. (ATHLETE)I completed it with "athletic" as it is an adjective. The solution according to the key is "athletics". Are both correct?As I know you can also change a noun into an adjective by placing it in front of another noun.For example:    school bag.Thanks.

Persian Learner · Accepted Answer

I think 'athletics' here means "track and field". It is like saying "football team".

Radovan · Answer

Hi,
I know, athletics (British English), track and field (American English).
Yet, in an Oxford dictonary there are examples:
an athletic coach, an athletic club
Would
an athletics coach, an athletics club
be correct as well?
Are "athletic" and "athletics" interchangable as adjectives?

Persian Learner · Answer

Are "athletic" and "athletics" interchangeable as adjectives?

No.

an athletic coach= a coach who may work at any field of sports.
an athletics coach= a coach who has only to do with track and field.

AlpheccaStars · Answer

We use a noun modifier before "team."

Jill is the star of the debate team.
He played for three years on the farm team before he was selected for the major league.
The emergency response team arrived in five minutes.
Athletics = "track and field"
He specialized in the broad jump on the school's track and field (British English, athletics) team.

"athletic team" seems to me that all the team members are very fit and strong, so the whole team seems particularly fit and strong. Bob was the strongest member of a very athletic team.

Radovan · Answer

What about these examples then:
an athletic club
an athletic coach
which are taken out of the Oxford dictonary? I can hardly imagine the club is fit and strong. I could imagine a coach who is fit and strong, but I still think it refers to athletics.Or do you think "athletic" as an adjective in this context is only British usage?

http://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/athletic?q=athletic

the second entry.

AlpheccaStars · Answer

radovanWhat about these examples then:an athletic cluban athletic coach

I was giving my sense of the modification of the word "team."
I did not mention any other nouns.

Radovan · Answer

That´s ok Alphecca, I am not being patronizing, I hope it didn´t come across that way. I am just trying to get my head around it. As well as other things in English, as English seems crazy to me sometimes.
Like, "A lot of plants have been planted in front of the car plant."

AlpheccaStars · Answer

radovan English seems crazy to me

We think it's crazy too.

The English Lesson

We’ll begin with box, and the plural is boxes,
But the plural of ox should be oxen, not oxes.
Then one fowl is goose, but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.
You may find a lone mouse or a whole lot of mice,
But the plural of house is houses, not hice.

If the plural of man is always called men,
Why shouldn’t the plural of pan be pen?
The cow in the plural may be cows or kine,
But the plural of vow is vows, not vine.
And I speak of a foot, and you show me your feet,
But I give a boot… would a pair be beet?

If one is a tooth, and a whole set is teeth,
Why shouldn’t the plural of booth be beeth?
If the singular is this, and the plural is these,
Why shouldn’t the plural of kiss be kese?
Then one may be that, and three be those,
Yet the plural of hat would never be hose.

We speak of a brother, and also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say methren.
The masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
But imagine the feminine she, shis, and shim.

So our English, I think you will agree,
Is the trickiest language you ever did see.

I take it you already know
of tough, and bough and cough and dough?
Others may stumble, but not you
on hiccough, through, slough and though.

Well done! And now you wish, perhaps
To learn of less familiar traps?
Beware of heard, a dreadful word
That looks like beard and sounds like bird.
And dead; it’s said like bed, not bead!
For goodness sake, don’t call it deed!

Watch out for meat and great and threat,
(They rhyme with suite and straight and debt)
A moth is not a moth in mother,
Nor both in bother, broth in brother.

And here is not a match for there,
Nor dear and fear for bear and pear,
And then there’s dose and rose and lose –
Just look them up – and goose and choose,
And cork and work and card and ward
And font and front and word and sword.

And do and go, then thwart and cart.
Come, come, I’ve hardly made a start.
A dreadful language: Why, man alive,
I’d learned to talk when I was five.
And yet to write it, the more I tried,
I hadn’t learned it at fifty-five.

Persian Learner · Answer

The English Lesson

Awesome lesson. Thanks for sharing.

Fivejedjon · Answer

radovan I can hardly imagine the club is fit and strong. I could imagine a coach who is fit and strong, but I still think it refers to athletics.Or do you think "athletic" as an adjective in this context is only British usage?http://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/athletic?q=athletic

This speaker of BrE would never speak of an athletic club.

athletic / athletics

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The English Lesson

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