COMMON ERROR - DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SHADE AND SHADOW:

Shadow is used to describe specific areas of darkness that are produced when objects or people are blocking any source of light. If you lift your hand up towards the light you create a shadow. It can be indoors or outdoors. A shadow can be cast by any light source such as a candle, a flashlight, an overhead light, a spotlight or the sun.

Shade, commonly used in a more general sense, is the darkness created by only the sun. Unlike shadow, it is an uncountable noun. The darkness underneath a tree or a parasol on a sunny day would be the shade. Shade is what one typically seeks on a hot sunny day in order to avoid too much sun exposure.


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ENGLISH COMMON ERROR: DIFFERENCE BETWEEN 'SHADE' AND 'SHADOW'

Now that much of Europe is experiencing a heatwave many people need to take refuge from the heat in the shade. In English, When we talk about being in the darker area where sunlight doesn't directly hit, we call this 'the shade'. This is uncountable so you can't say 'a shade' in this context. If you want to speak about a specific darker area outside which doesn't directly catch sunlight, we call this 'a shadow', a countable noun. For example we can say 'the shadow of the tree is very big' or 'if I go into the sunlight, I will have a shadow'. So use 'shade' in a general sense and 'shadow' in a specific sense. Hope this helps. http://www.clasesinglesonline.com