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Example 1

I graduated high school 6 years ago. I have heard that my high school teacher is shooting videos and no longer teaches.

Example 2

I graduated high school 6 years ago. I have heard that my former high school teacher is shooting videos and no longer teaches.

Is "former" necessary in Example 2?

Background info: I broke up with my girlfriend years ago. And I don't have a girlfriend now.

Example 3

I ran into my girlfriend.

Example 4

I ran into my old girlfriend.

Is "old" necessary in Example 4?

I have problems telling when I should use "ex-," "old," or "former" in a case like this.

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    Is "I graduated high school six years ago" being spoken, or is that "background" info that the listener would be aware of?
    – TimR
    Commented Jan 13 at 11:25
  • "Former" or not, I'd include a "now" when describing what they are doing, well, now.
    – Peter - Reinstate Monica
    Commented Jan 15 at 18:59

3 Answers 3

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When a thirty-year-old talks about "my high school teacher", it's pretty clear that they mean the person who taught them in high school. Nobody will think that they could still be in high school, or that they are pretending to still be a school student. In addition, a current high school student would say "my teacher" not "my high school teacher". In this way, the words "high school" already imply that it is your former teacher. Nevertheless, even if "former" is not required, it is quite common in this situation.

But "girlfriend" has a different social context. If a thirty-year-old says "my girlfriend" the assumption is that they are a current girlfriend. Everybody knows that they could still be the girlfriend. If you know they broke up, it sounds like the speaker is pretending that the break-up didn't happen or living in a fantasy.

So some modifier is socially required with "girlfriend". "I met my ex-girlfriend". But less so for teachers. "I met my (former) high school teacher"

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    I think "former" is common in this context even if it's not absolutely essential. It makes it clearer both that you're no longer taught by them (and depending on context that you're no longer at school) and that you had a specific relationship of teacher-pupil (rather than them just teaching occasionally or just being in the same school). I don't know if there are contexts when an adult would say "my high school teacher" and not mean a former teacher, but there could be (maybe they're a headteacher, school inspector, PTA, adult resitting high school classes?) so it doesn't hurt to clarify.
    – Stuart F
    Commented Jan 14 at 20:03
  • For some reason "I met my (former) high school teacher" sounds rather less natural to my ears than "I met my former high school teacher". It's like you're drawing attention to the "former" status.
    – Spehro 'speff' Pefhany
    Commented Jan 14 at 20:41
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    @SpehroPefhany the brackets just means it's optional. When included, it's exactly pronounced as "I met my former high school teacher". When not included, it's "I met my high school teacher"
    – justhalf
    Commented Jan 15 at 21:17
  • @justhalf Ah, I thought you intended to write it with the brackets.
    – Spehro 'speff' Pefhany
    Commented Jan 15 at 22:54
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Using "former" in "my former high school teacher" means that they used to be your high school teacher but are no longer your high school teacher, regardless of whether they are still teaching or not. Leaving out "former" would mean they are still your high school teacher.

The word "old" can be used to mean "former," although "former" is more precise because "old" has two meanings ("aged" and "previous"). You can use "ex-," "old," or "former" in that sentence and they are all roughly identical.

Also, you weren't asking about this, but the way you worded this, it implies that you only have one teacher at a time; otherwise, you would say, "One of my former high school teachers..."

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    If the context is clear that I already graduated, can I leave out "former"?
    – VinceL
    Commented Jan 13 at 7:27
  • "I ran into my high school teacher the other day. " "My high school teacher lives in another town now." What do you think?
    – VinceL
    Commented Jan 13 at 7:28
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    @vincentlin Yes, you could leave it out if the context is clear. I would say that "My high school teacher" sounds a little bit awkward to me, because in high school you'd usually have a number of teachers over the years, and for different subjects. So, something like "one of my high school teachers lives in another town..." or "my year 10 science teacher lives in another town..." would sound more natural.
    – Jacob Peattie
    Commented Jan 13 at 14:23
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    @JacobPeattie Since it's understood that people have multiple high school teachers, no one would interpret "my high school teacher" to mean their only teacher. So it's not necessary to be explicit. However, if you said "my high school teachers", it might mean all of them, so you would say "some of ..."
    – Barmar
    Commented Jan 13 at 16:06
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    @Barmar If I heard somebody refer to "my high school teacher" I would understand that the speaker probably meant just one of them, but I would also understand that the speaker had made a mistake.
    – Peter
    Commented Jan 14 at 8:34
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"High school" here is a way of specifying a temporal context. It serves a similar function to "former", except that it is more specific about the time period. So the following are both fine:

I saw my high school teacher at the store.

I saw my high school girlfriend at the store.

I tried to think of other non-education-related expressions that worked this way, but was not able to.

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    +1. Re: non-education-related: We also say things like "The other day I ran into a coworker from my last job" (or "from an old job"), "Yesterday I got an e-mail from our next-door neighbor when we lived in California", and so on. So it's not necessarily specific to education, but I think it does generally involve a well-demarcated period, and education certainly creates a lot of those!
    – ruakh
    Commented Jan 15 at 8:40
  • +1, although one must concede that given the fundamental ambiguity of the language, one may need to explicitly say "with whom I no longer have a relationship" if that is what the words "high school" or "former" are meant to convey. For example, I am long out of high school but I am still in a relationship with my high school girlfriend, who is also a former girlfriend since we have been married for many years.
    – David K
    Commented Jan 15 at 21:38

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