cinemas
cinemas — noun
- cinemassingular
- cinemasesplural
1. a building with one or more large screens where the public can go to watch films
a building with one or more large screens where the public can go to watch films that are shown at set times
Wei Chen bought two tickets at the new cinema near the train station.
count noun: a cinema
The cinema on High Street shows classic films every Tuesday evening.
definite article: the cinema
Kenji and his friends met outside the cinema ten minutes before the show began.
That old cinema only has one screen and seats about eighty people.
The cinema was nearly empty, so Ana found a great seat right away.
- movie theatre
more common in American English; 'cinema' is the usual term in British English
- picture house
an older, less common British term with a slightly nostalgic tone
文法句型
the cinema / a cinema
用法筆記
In everyday speech, the form 'the cinema' is far more common than 'the cinemas' for referring to a single building, though 'cinemas' appears in signs, listings, and plural contexts.
常見錯誤
2. the activity of going to a building where films are shown, especially as a form
the activity of going to a building where films are shown, especially as a form of entertainment shared with other people
Fatima and her classmates love going to the cinemas on Saturday afternoons.
pattern: going to the cinemas
Going to the cinema is a popular weekend activity for many families in Taipei.
pattern: going to the cinema (singular, same meaning)
Siti suggested they go to the cinemas after dinner to see the new comedy.
Theo rarely goes to the cinema because he prefers watching films at home.
- going to the movies
the standard American English equivalent of 'going to the cinema'
文法句型
go to the cinema / the cinemas
用法筆記
This sense appears only in phrases about going to watch a film. 'Cinema' (singular) and 'cinemas' (plural) are interchangeable in this pattern in many varieties of English, though the singular 'the cinema' is more frequent worldwide.
常見錯誤
3. the art, business, and cultural world of making and showing films, considered as
the art, business, and cultural world of making and showing films, considered as a whole across a country, region, or historical period
Korean cinema has gained worldwide popularity over the past twenty years.
pattern: [country] + cinema
Lucia is studying film history to understand how Italian cinema reflects social change.
The cinema of the 1990s saw a huge rise in computer-generated special effects.
Chidi hopes to work in African cinema as a director or a screenwriter.
Dmitri wrote his thesis on the influence of French cinema on modern storytelling.
- film industry
more neutral and business-focused; 'cinema' carries a slightly more artistic or cultural connotation
- the movies
an informal American English term that can refer to the industry as a whole
- motion pictures
a more formal and dated term for the medium
文法句型
[country/region/era] + cinema
用法筆記
In this sense 'cinema' is uncountable and takes no article except in constructions like 'the cinema of the 1990s'. It cannot be made plural ('cinemas') when referring to the art or industry.