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01This week on Ask a Teacher, we answer a question from Doyeon in Korea about the usage of three similar words.
02Here is the question.
03Hello.
04I want to know the differences between the beach, coast, and shore.
05Thank you.
06You ask a useful question, Doyeon.
07Beach, shore, and coast are related words, but they have some important differences.
08Beach The word beach is the most specific of the three words.
09The Collins Online Dictionary defines beach as Ocean beaches are popular places to visit.
10We often use the phrase at the beach to express the idea of spending time in the general area of the beach, as in the following example.
11They will vacation at the beach this summer.
12We usually say on the beach when describing specific activities we do there.
13She went for a walk on the beach.
14I'm going to spend my afternoon on the beach.
15They are playing football on the beach.
16Coast The Learning English wordbook defines coast as land on the edge of the ocean.
17We can use the word to describe a wide area, however.
18For example, Baltimore, Maryland is an east coast city, even though it is several kilometers from the Atlantic Ocean.
19Here are more examples of how we can use coast in a sentence.
20The Florida coast has many nice towns and beaches.
21The coast of California extends over 1,300 kilometers.
22Like the expression, at the beach, we can say, on the coast, when describing the general area, as in the following example.
23Her mother has lived on the coast for 30 years.
24We can use the expression, off the coast of, to describe an area of ocean or sea relative to a place on land.
25The island is about 60 kilometers off the coast of Africa.
26Shore The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines the word shore as the land bordering a usually large body of water.
27Shore can sometimes mean the beach, but not always.
28For example, you might swim to shore and come out of the water onto a beach.
29But you could also come to shore at a port with no beach in sight.
30And we can use shore when discussing the general area, just like we do with the word coast.
31The following example shows this meaning.
32The northern shore has many nice towns and beaches.
33For our readers and listeners, what are your questions about American English?
34We want to hear from you.
35Do you like to spend time at the coast?
36Send us an email at learningenglish at voanews.com.
37And please let us know where you are from, too.
38And that's Ask a Teacher.
39I'm Andrew Smith.
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