Appeal

This week on Ask a Teacher, we answer the following question from a listener.

Dear teacher,

Could you please say more about the meaning of “appeal?”

Thank you.

Like many words in English, “appeal” has more than one meaning. It can also be more than one part of speech. A part of speech means the grammatical function a word has, such as a noun, verb, adverb or adjective. Let’s look at the many ways we can use the word “appeal.”

As a verb, “appeal” means to make a request, often in official situations or involving important things. Generally, we do not use “appeal” for normal, everyday requests. For example, we would not say:

I appeal for you to get some milk at the store.

But we would say something like:

The earthquake victims appealed to the government for more aid.

Appealing

We can change the meaning of “appeal” by making it an adjective. One way to do this is to use the -ing ending. This forms the word “appealing,” which describes something that has a pleasing quality. Consider the following examples:

That job is really appealing to me.

Her dress looks really appealing.

The nice weather makes that city so appealing.

That argument is appealing to many voters.

As shown in these examples, we can use the adjective “appealing” to describe many different things.

The word “appeal” can also be used as a noun. One meaning as a noun describes a formal or urgent request, as shown in the following examples:

Their appeal for help was not answered.

The employees made an appeal to reduce the number of hours of work.

The second example above shows that we often use the verb “make” before the noun “appeal.”

The word “appeal” can also be used as a noun to describe a quality that creates interest, sympathy, or attraction. Here are some examples of that usage:

The museum’s design has a lot of appeal.

The appeal of that music is its simplicity.

Using “appeal” in the law

“Appeal” is also often used in legal matters – both as a noun or a verb. As a noun, it means a formal request to a court to review a decision by another court. If one court accepts the other’s request, we can say the court “granted” the appeal. If the court rejects the appeal, we can say the court “denied” it.

The following example shows “appeal” being used as a verb in legal English:

The defense team will likely appeal the decision.

An adjective form of “appeal” is also used in the legal system. The adjective “appellate” describes a kind of court that deals with cases that have been appealed.

For our readers and listeners, what are your questions about American English? Was this lesson appealing to you? We want to hear your thoughts! Send us an email at learningenglish@voanews.com. And please let us know where you are from, too.

And that’s Ask a Teacher.

I’m Andrew Smith.

Andrew Smith wrote this lesson for VOA Learning English.

function –n. the special action something or someone does to do a task or job

attraction –n. a positive feeling toward something that makes you interested in it or like it

grant –v. give permission

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