personals
personals — noun
1. the part of a newspaper, magazine, or website where people pay to print short pr
the part of a newspaper, magazine, or website where people pay to print short private notices, often to look for a partner or send someone a message
Nala met her husband through an ad she placed in the personals.
collocation: meet someone through the personals
Every Sunday, Rohan read the personals just to enjoy the funny messages.
the + personals as a fixed plural noun
The local paper charges ten dollars to run a short notice in the personals.
Lonely after the move, Manuela posted a hopeful message in the personals.
Before dating apps, many couples first found each other in the personals.
- personal ads
the more common everyday term for the same section
- classifieds
broader — covers all small paid notices, not just private or romantic ones
文法句型
the personals
place an ad in the personals
用法筆記
Always plural and almost always preceded by 'the'. The closely related modern phrase 'personal ads' means the same thing and is more common in everyday speech.
常見錯誤
2. short news items in a paper that report what particular local people have been d
short news items in a paper that report what particular local people have been doing, such as visits, weddings, or awards
The small-town editor, Caleb, wrote the personals about births and weddings himself.
Aunt Élise always checked the personals to see which neighbours had won prizes.
the + personals reporting local people's news
Back in 1950, the personals listed who had visited the Darius family that week.
The village newsletter kept a personals section for engagements and new babies.
- social column
a named section reporting local people's social activities
- society pages
covers a wider range of social-life reporting in larger papers
文法句型
the personals column
用法筆記
Distinguish from sense 1: here the items are short reports about named local people's activities, not paid private notices placed by readers themselves. This use is old-fashioned and now rare.