written by Lilian Ndongmo. ESL Teacher

The purpose of this article is to address the usage of course, class and lesson, which many of my students find confusing and which they do not often use correctly.

If you search these words, you will find that they each have several meanings, and are used slightly differently from one country and / or context to the other. If you know the basic meaning, that is a good place to start. My aim here is to make it as simple as possible for you, the learner, to understand and use correctly.

Let’s look at three sentences. The context is education.

1. I am taking an English course.
2. I am taking an English class.
3. I am taking an English lesson.

How are they different?
Let’s relate them to these Russian dolls.

A                B                C

Course is like doll C, the biggest doll. A course is the whole program of study.

Sentence 1: I am taking an English course.
This means that you are taking a program of study for a fixed period of time: one year, a semester, six months, etc.

Class is like doll D, the medium doll. A class is a specific section of a course.

Sentence 2: I am taking an English class.
This means that in your course, you teacher will teach you a section on reading, writing, speaking, listening, etc. over a period of time.

Lesson is like doll A, the smallest doll. A lesson is a unit of a class.

Sentence 3: I am taking an English lesson.
This means that in your English class, your teacher will teach you a lesson on grammar or vocabulary.

Summary

Many lessons make up a class.
Many classes make up a course.
In other words, in a class you take lessons. To finish a course, you have to take many classes.

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