Legal and Law

Hello! This week on Ask a Teacher, we answer a question from Emmanuel in Zambia about the usage of the words “legal” and “law” in English.

Question

Dear Teacher,

Please help me understand the correct usage of the words "legal" and "law.” In the recent debate... I heard Donald Trump say "legal scholar.” I thought he was supposed to say, "law scholar.” Which one is the correct usage?

Thank you.

Answer

I'm happy to answer this question, Emmanuel.

The word “legal” is an adjective. That is why we can place it before the noun “scholar.” In the same way, we can use “legal” before many other nouns, as in these examples:

Legal system, legal documents, legal protections, and legal opinion.

The word “law” is a noun. We often use “the law” to discuss specific laws or to discuss the law in general. Let's look at an example of each. First, here is an example discussing a specific law about voting rules:

The law clearly states that persons under 18 years old are not permitted to vote.

Next, here is an example discussing the law in general:

Over the years, the law has changed to provide equal rights to women.

Law: noun or adjective?

The noun “law” can seem like an adjective when we place it before another noun to describe what a person does. For example:

Law professor, law school, and law student

However, the word “law” and the noun together form what is called a spaced compound noun. That is, we use the two words together to name one thing or person. “Police officer” is another example of a compound noun.

But this returns us to your question—if we can say “law professor,” why do we usually say “legal scholar” instead of “law scholar?”

One reason is that when we state what kind of legal scholar a person is, we can use an adjective and the word “law” before the word “scholar.” The following examples show this.

A busy law scholar

A constitutional law scholar

In these cases, the word “law” replaces the word “legal.” But if we are not stating what kind of scholar a person is, then we usually use the two words “legal scholar.”

Note, however, that we can also put an adjective before the words “legal scholar,” as in “international legal scholar.”

The above examples show that there are no strict rules for using “legal scholar” instead of “law scholar” when an adjective is placed before the two words. But keep in mind that we use the expression “legal scholar” more often than "law scholar” when there is no adjective before the two words.

Discussing the law and legal terms in English might seem difficult. But by reading and listening carefully, you can find the most common and correct ways to discuss this subject.

For our readers and listeners, what are your questions about American English? We'd like to hear from you. Send us an email at 21voa.com. And please include where you are from in your email, too.

And that's Ask a Teacher.

I'm Andrew Smith.

Andrew Smith wrote this lesson for VOA Learning English.

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Words in This Story

specific -adj. the exact example of something and not any of other similar things