What's the difference?

teacher/tutor (and while we're at it, trainer, instructor, educator, lecturer, professor and coach)

Yes, there's lots of lovely words to describe all those people/things that teach.

​

A teacher teaches. That's pretty simple.

A tutor, however, is someone who gives private lessons. These can be to individuals or (usually) to small groups of people. In British English, however, a tutor can also describe a university teacher who directs the studies of students, also giving them advice. So having a private tutor in the UK could sound quite important.

An instructor tis someone that teaches a specific or practical skill, usually in things like driving, skiing, swimming and so on.

A lecturer is somebody, usually highly-qualified in their subject, who teaches at a university or college.

An educator is American English for someone who teaches in a school, college or university. So they can be all of the above.

A professor is a university teacher that has a very high ranking in the UK. However, in the USA this can be any university teacher who possess a second degree in something.

A trainer teaches people the skills and requirements that are needed to a job.

A coach is someone who trains people - either as individuals or as a whole team - in sport and how to make them better both physically at the sport and mentally as in ways of thinking about doing the sport.

​

Is that it? Nope.

​

There's also an academic, but this is usually associated with someone who has great knowledge on a particular subject , and is often able to express this knowledge to students, particularly at a university.

​

You may even hear the older generation of British English refer to the manager of a football team. Most people still refer to this position as a coach, but the modern football manager is responsible for finding the best way of using all the players and the skills they have in the best possible way. He does this by expressing a set of tactics to his team, by which telling all the different players how they should interact between each other. He can also decide on what players are best for the team and which perhaps are no longing needed and which may be good to buy from other clubs at the amounts of money he has available, usually provided by his boss, the chairman or owner.

​

Whatever. We listen to them all and try to remember and put into practice what we have learnt from them.

​

What's the difference?  Home