VOA · Ask a Teacher
Beginner · A2learner speed4:562024-10-17public domain
In Ask a Teacher, real learner questions about English grammar and usage get short, clear answers. Episodes are only a few minutes long and use simple classroom English — a gentle entry point if you are new to dictation practice.
Hit "Start dictation practice" — all 5 minutes are already sliced into sentences, so practice starts immediately. No wait.
Replay each sentence as many times as you need — beginner episodes use short sentences and simple vocabulary.
Switch to Dictation mode, type each sentence, and get a word-by-word diff with your accuracy score.
01Hello!
02This week on Ask a Teacher, we answer a question from Emmanuel in Zambia about the usage of the words legal and law in English.
03Dear Teacher, Please help me understand the correct usage of the words legal and law.
04In the recent debate, I heard Donald Trump say legal scholar.
05I thought he was supposed to say law scholar.
06Which one is the correct usage?
07Thank you.
08I'm happy to answer this question, Emmanuel.
09The word legal is an adjective.
10That is why we can place it before the noun scholar.
11In the same way, we can use legal before many other nouns, as in these examples.
12Legal system, legal documents, legal protections, and legal opinion.
13The word law is a noun.
14We often use the law to discuss specific laws or to discuss the law in general.
15Let's look at an example of each.
16First, here is an example discussing a specific law about voting rules.
17The law clearly states that persons under 18 years old are not permitted to vote.
18Next, here is an example discussing the law in general.
19Over the years, the law has changed to provide equal rights to women.
20The noun law can seem like an adjective when we place it before another noun to describe what a person does.
21For example, law professor, law school, and law student.
22However, the word law and the noun together form what is called a spaced compound noun.
23That is, we use the two words together to name one thing or person.
24Police officer is another example of a compound noun.
25But, this returns us to your question.
26If we can say law professor, why do we usually say legal scholar instead of law scholar?
27One reason is that when we state what kind of legal scholar a person is, we can use an adjective and the word law before the word scholar.
28The following examples show this.
29A busy law scholar.
30A constitutional law scholar.
31In these cases, the word law replaces the word legal.
32But, if we are not stating what kind of scholar a person is, then we usually use the two words legal scholar.
33Note, however, that we can also put an adjective before the words legal scholar, as in international legal scholar.
34The above examples show that there are no strict rules for using legal scholar instead of law scholar when an adjective is placed before the two words.
35But, keep in mind that we use the expression legal scholar more often than law scholar when there is no adjective before the two words.
36Discussing the law and legal terms in English might seem difficult.
37But, by reading and listening carefully, you can find the most common and correct ways to discuss this subject.
38For our readers and listeners, what are your questions about American English?
39We'd like to hear from you.
40Send us an email at learningenglish at voanews.com And, please include where you are from in your email, too.
41And that's Ask a Teacher.
42I'm Andrew Smith.
43I'm I'm Andrew Smith.
44I'm I'm I'm Andrew Smith.
45I'm Andrew Smith.
46I'm
// transcribed with Whisper AI — reading it is easy; catching it by ear is the skill
Practice it by ear
