---
title: failing — school dictionary · trees and pragmatics
description: «failing» in the school dictionary: A failing is a fault or weakness in a person's character or behaviour. Every meaning for a pupil with its dependency tree and pragmatics.
---

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# failing

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**Who acts:** failing, Everyone, Pride, you · **What happens:** be, have, fail · **To what, where:** fault, character, failings, greatest failing, others

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«failing» in the school dictionary: its meaning for a pupil and its 3 examples, every sentence parsed by Mova itself — its syntax tree, a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies, and its pragmatics clause by clause. The word in the dictionary, with its sense in the lessons: [failing in the school dictionary](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/school/w/failing.md).

## Meaning 1 {#m1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
A failing is a fault or weakness in a person's character or behaviour.

<!-- fold The tree, 14 words -->
```conllu
# sent_id = dict:school:failing:m1:1
# text = A failing is a fault or weakness in a person's character or behaviour.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	failing	failing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	fault	fault	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
6	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	weakness	weakness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	person	person	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	's	's	PART	POS	_	10	case	_	_
12	character	character	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	_
13	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	behaviour	behaviour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | a failing | a fault or weakness |  | a person's character or behaviour |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .note -->
One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

## Example 1 {#x1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Everyone has some failings.

```conllu
# sent_id = dict:school:failing:x1:1
# text = Everyone has some failings.
1	Everyone	everyone	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Tot	2	nsubj	_	_
2	has	have	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	4	det	_	_
4	failings	failing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | present | Everyone | some failings |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent failing=Patient |

## Example 2 {#x2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Pride was his greatest failing.

```conllu
# sent_id = dict:school:failing:x2:1
# text = Pride was his greatest failing.
1	Pride	pride	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
4	greatest	great	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	5	amod	_	_
5	failing	failing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | Pride | his greatest failing |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

## Example 3 {#x3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Be kind about the failings of others.

```conllu
# sent_id = dict:school:failing:x3:1
# text = Be kind about the failings of others.
1	Be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	cop	_	_
2	kind	kind	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
3	about	about	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	failings	failing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	others	other	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | imperative | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  | about the failings of others; kind *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **fail** |  |  | others |  |  |  |  | nom failing «state transitive»: of=patient |

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**Text:** the school dictionary of Mova's schools (`world/data/dictionary-schools/`), written for Mova. **Trees:** Mova's own parse — the `en` model on the CPU, when the site is built — not checked by a teacher; they may be wrong. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), each meaning and example read on its own. Elamur Cosmic License.

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- ← previous: [fail](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/fail/)
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- ↑ back to [F in school dictionary](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/)