Former and Ex

[waller]

Hi everyone. I just want to as whats the difference between using former or ex as in ex-roomate,former-roomate or ex-girlfriend,former-girlfriend. I cannot seem to differenciate this two. Thanks.
By the way, please don't hesitate to correct my grammar. I try to write in proper english as proper as possible.

[denith]

They are the same.

[Kimlong]

The meaning of the both is the same but they function different part of speech!

Former is adjective while Ex is prefix!!

[Keo Somala]

Hi everyone. I just want to as whats the difference between using former or ex as in ex-roomate,former-roomate or ex-girlfriend,former-girlfriend. I cannot seem to differenciate this two. Thanks.
By the way, please don't hesitate to correct my grammar. I try to write in proper english as proper as possible.

Well, it seems to me; no difference in meaning. But 'former' seems more formal. We don't ahve 'ex-student' but we often hear 'former-student'.

 Hmm...a bit hard to ellaborate.  Please give us some problematic words of the word 'ex & former'. We'll solve them together.

[waller]

Hi everyone. I just want to as whats the difference between using former or ex as in ex-roomate,former-roomate or ex-girlfriend,former-girlfriend. I cannot seem to differenciate this two. Thanks.
By the way, please don't hesitate to correct my grammar. I try to write in proper english as proper as possible.

Well, it seems to me; no difference in meaning. But 'former' seems more formal. We don't ahve 'ex-student' but we often hear 'former-student'.

 Hmm...a bit hard to ellaborate.  Please give us some problematic words of the word 'ex & former'. We'll solve them together.

Hi, thanks for your reply. What about roomate, girlfriend, classmate, teacher, wife. It seems like ex is used for something thats more intimate. Do you agree?

[Keo Somala]

Yeah...

'Former ' tends very much to refer to a previous holder of a job/position/occupation rather than referring to personal relationships. 'Ex' on the other hand can be used for both formal and informal descriptions. It's perhaps worth noting than 'ex' has now been upgraded to a noun as when people are talking about their 'ex', they mean their 'former' husband/wife/partner/lover.

Here is an explanation from a foreign teacher.

http://www.english-test.net/forum/ftopic20901.html

 

[-Loren-]

Yeah...

'Former ' tends very much to refer to a previous holder of a job/position/occupation rather than referring to personal relationships. 'Ex' on the other hand can be used for both formal and informal descriptions. It's perhaps worth noting than 'ex' has now been upgraded to a noun as when people are talking about their 'ex', they mean their 'former' husband/wife/partner/lover.

Here is an explanation from a foreign teacher.

http://www.english-test.net/forum/ftopic20901.html

 

Cool stuffs!

[Keo Somala]

I'm glad you like it. 

[Sarath]

Some scholars argue that the word "ex" should be used with the immediate past incumbent.

Suppose, "D" is current Prime Minister.  "C" will become the ex-PM and "B", "A" become former PMs.

Similarly, A man may have several former wives,  but only one ex-wife. 

[denith]

We, men, tend to use "ex-Girlfriend" instead of "former Girlfriend" because we may be a bit heartbroken when that happened.

[Tdol]

We also use 'old' sometimes: my old school.