--- title: Vocabulary in context — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Vocabulary in context», a lesson of the english course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: You do not need to know every word to understand a text. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/20-vocabulary-in-context/) [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/) / [English](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/) / Vocabulary in context # Vocabulary in context Lesson 20 of the english course of Mova's primary school: 19 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/english/20-vocabulary-in-context/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/20-vocabulary-in-context/0/) — You do not need to know every word to understand a text. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/20-vocabulary-in-context/1/) — When you meet a new word, read the words around it: they are its context, and they leave clues. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/20-vocabulary-in-context/2/) — «The children were famished after the long walk.» After a long walk you are hungry, so famished must mean very hungry. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/20-vocabulary-in-context/3/) — That is exactly what it means. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/20-vocabulary-in-context/4/) — «The path was treacherous, full of loose stones and steep drops.» Leo guesses treacherous means pretty, but the clues are loose stones and steep drops, so it must mean dangerous. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/20-vocabulary-in-context/5/) — Always ask: what word would fit here? - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/20-vocabulary-in-context/6/) — Then try your meaning in the sentence instead of the hard word and see if it still makes sense. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/20-vocabulary-in-context/7/) — Words also carry feelings. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/20-vocabulary-in-context/8/) — «He gave a curt reply and walked away.» Curt means short, but the walking away tells you it was short in a rude, unfriendly way. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/20-vocabulary-in-context/9/) — «The dog's tail drooped» is not just about a tail moving down: it shows the dog is sad or tired. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/20-vocabulary-in-context/10/) — Glum, sad, miserable and heartbroken all mean unhappy, but each a different amount. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/20-vocabulary-in-context/11/) — Words from other places work the same way. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/20-vocabulary-in-context/13/) — An Aussie mum says, «The servo's closed, love», and Ella in London has to work it out: a servo is a petrol station. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/20-vocabulary-in-context/14/) — When context is not enough, a dictionary settles it. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/20-vocabulary-in-context/15/) — Context means the words and sentences around a word. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/20-vocabulary-in-context/16/) — Context clues can help you work out the meaning of an unknown word. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/20-vocabulary-in-context/17/) — A good check is to swap your meaning into the sentence and see if it still makes sense. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/20-vocabulary-in-context/19/) — «Treacherous» means dangerous, especially when it looks safe. - [26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/20-vocabulary-in-context/26/) — You can understand a text well without knowing every word; skip, read on, then come back. - ← previous: [Prediction: what happens next](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/19-prediction-what-happens-next/) - next →: [Author's choices: why this word, why this way](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/21-authors-choices-why-this-word-why-this-way/) - ↑ back to [English](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/)