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# yesterday

«yesterday» in Mova's school dictionary: **on the day before today** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

adverb (yesterday); noun (yesterday — the day before today)

### meaning for a pupil

1) Yesterday means on the day before today. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/Y/yesterday/#m1)

2) Yesterday can mean the recent past in general: the toys of yesterday. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/Y/yesterday/#m2)

3) "The day before yesterday" means two days ago. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/Y/yesterday/#m3)

### sense in the lessons

In maths and time lessons, pupils work out days: if today is Tuesday, yesterday was Monday and tomorrow is Wednesday; calendar problems use «yesterday» and «the day before yesterday». In English grammar, «yesterday» signals the past tense: «I played yesterday», not «I play yesterday». In stories and diaries it tells the reader when events happened. Phrases: yesterday morning, yesterday afternoon, the day before yesterday, only yesterday.

### examples

- Yesterday it rained all day. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/Y/yesterday/#x1)
- I played football with my friends yesterday afternoon. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/Y/yesterday/#x2)
- If today is Friday, yesterday was Thursday. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/Y/yesterday/#x3)
- The day before yesterday was my birthday. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/Y/yesterday/#x4)
- I didn't do my homework yesterday, so I'm doing it now. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/Y/yesterday/#x5)
- It feels like only yesterday that we started school. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/Y/yesterday/#x6)
- Yesterday's newspaper is on the table. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/Y/yesterday/#x7)
- I was only made day before yesterday. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/Y/yesterday/#x8)

### note

Use a past tense with yesterday: «I went yesterday», not «I go yesterday». Say «yesterday morning», not «yesterday in the morning» or «last morning». But: «last night», not «yesterday night» (though people understand it). Maths: yesterday is today minus one day; the day before yesterday is minus two.

### In the corpora

- [Listen for tones: zuó rising is in zuótiān, yesterday, but zuò falling is "sit" or "do".](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/21-today-tomorrow-now-later/4/)
- ["zuótiān" means yesterday; zuó rises, while zuò (falling) means to sit or to do.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/21-today-tomorrow-now-later/7/)
- [Time words such as yesterday, now and tomorrow must agree with the tense of the verb.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/31-tense-consistency-and-verb-forms/12/)
- [If I mess up, I'll tell you.» A month later: «I had one yesterday.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/455-trusting-again/19/)
- [J'ai eu dix ans hier ! means "I turned ten yesterday!"; learn it as a set birthday phrase.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/11-dates-and-birthdays/14/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «yesterday» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/Y/yesterday/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.