---
title: The body — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics
description: «The body», a lesson of the chinese street course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: At Lín's house you trip over the cat and his mum rushes in: "nǎr téng?" — "where does it hurt?" — and you point and say "zhèr téng", it hurts here.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/18-the-body/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Chinese street](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/) / The body

# The body

<!-- .vabout -->
Lesson 18 of the chinese street course of Mova's primary school: 16 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/chinese-street/18-the-body/).

<!-- list vl: b t -->
- [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/18-the-body/0/) — At Lín's house you trip over the cat and his mum rushes in: "nǎr téng?" — "where does it hurt?" — and you point and say "zhèr téng", it hurts here.
- [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/18-the-body/2/) — Tones turn body parts into numbers and food: ěr (dipping) is in ěrduo, ears, but èr (falling) is two; jiǎo is a foot, but jiǎozi are dumplings and jiào is "to be called".
- [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/18-the-body/3/) — Some body words make every playground giggle: pìgu (PEE-goo) is bottom, a childish word, not a rude one; but one word for mouth turns up in a rude "shut up!", so say "bié shuō le" instead.
- [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/18-the-body/4/) — Never mock the shape of someone's eyes or pull your eyes to "look Chinese": that is racism, not a joke.
- [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/18-the-body/5/) — "tóu" (rising) means head; "tóu téng" is a headache, and grannies may fondly touch a child's head.
- [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/18-the-body/6/) — "yǎnjing" means eyes; "bì shàng yǎnjing" means close your eyes; mocking eye shapes or pulling your eyes is racism.
- [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/18-the-body/7/) — "ěrduo" means ears; "nǐ de ěrduo hóng le" (your ears have gone red) means you're embarrassed; ěr dips, while èr (two) falls.
- [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/18-the-body/8/) — "bízi" means nose; "liú bítì" is a runny nose, and "wā bíshǐ" (picking your nose) is a word kids find hilarious.
- [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/18-the-body/9/) — "zuǐba" means mouth; the dentist says "zhāng zuǐ", open your mouth; zuǐ also turns up in a rude "shut up!", and the soft way is "bié shuō le".
- [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/18-the-body/10/) — "yá" (rising) means tooth or teeth; "wǒ diào yá le!" is "my tooth fell out!"; in some Chinese families a lost bottom tooth is thrown onto the roof, not left for a fairy.
- [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/18-the-body/11/) — "shǒu" (dipping) means hand; "xǐ shǒu" means wash your hands, before eating; shòu (falling) means thin.
- [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/18-the-body/12/) — "jiǎo" (dipping) means foot; "wǒ de jiǎo téng" is "my foot hurts"; jiǎozi are dumplings and jiào is "to be called".
- [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/18-the-body/13/) — "dùzi" means tummy; "dùzi téng" is tummy ache, and "dùzi jiào le" (my tummy is calling) means it rumbled.
- [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/18-the-body/14/) — "tuǐ" means leg; "wǒ de tuǐ suān le" is "my legs are aching"; jītuǐ (chicken leg) is a favourite food.
- [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/18-the-body/15/) — "pìgu" means bottom or bum; it is a childish word, not a rude one, and "fàng pì" (to fart) makes every playground laugh.
- [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/18-the-body/16/) — "téng" (rising) means "it hurts"; "nǎr téng?" is "where does it hurt?", "zhèr téng" is "it hurts here", and "bù téng" is "it doesn't hurt".

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [Hungry, tired, shy, excited](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/17-hungry-tired-shy-excited/)
- next →: [Animals and "what animal are you?"](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/19-animals-and-your-zodiac-animal/)
- ↑ back to [Chinese street](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/)

