--- title: Building tension and suspense — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Building tension and suspense», a lesson of the english course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Suspense is the delicious worry of not knowing yet: the reader holds their breath because something might happen, and the writer's job is to --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/42-building-tension-and-suspense/) [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/) / Building tension and suspense # Building tension and suspense Lesson 42 of the english course of Mova's primary school: 17 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/42-building-tension-and-suspense/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/42-building-tension-and-suspense/0/) — Suspense is the delicious worry of not knowing yet: the reader holds their breath because something might happen, and the writer's job is to make them wait. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/42-building-tension-and-suspense/1/) — When the teacher reads "He waited. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/42-building-tension-and-suspense/2/) — Then a creak.", the whole class freezes, because short sentences slow time down and make every second feel important, like the ticking before a game show answer. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/42-building-tension-and-suspense/3/) — Showing everything at once kills it: "There was a monster. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/42-building-tension-and-suspense/4/) — It ate the teacher" is over before we can be scared, and "The ghost appeared, chased them, and they escaped" squashes a whole chase into one breath. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/42-building-tension-and-suspense/6/) — Sam from Boston knew the secret: when his mum called his ghost story "wicked scary" ("wicked" means very in New England), he said, "I didn't say what the noise was." - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/42-building-tension-and-suspense/7/) — Suspense is the feeling of waiting and worrying about what will happen next. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/42-building-tension-and-suspense/8/) — Tension builds when the writer slows the action and holds back information. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/42-building-tension-and-suspense/9/) — Short sentences and one-word sentences can slow a moment and make it feel tense. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/42-building-tension-and-suspense/10/) — Revealing the danger too fast removes the suspense. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/42-building-tension-and-suspense/11/) — Hints such as sounds, shadows and strange details make readers imagine the worst, which is often scarier than any description. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/42-building-tension-and-suspense/12/) — A rhetorical question, such as "What was behind the door?", is asked for effect, not for an answer; it makes the reader wonder with the character. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/42-building-tension-and-suspense/13/) — An ellipsis (...) can make the reader pause and wait. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/42-building-tension-and-suspense/14/) — A cliffhanger ends a chapter or episode at a tense moment, so the reader must read on. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/42-building-tension-and-suspense/15/) — Using "suddenly" again and again stops it being sudden; one surprise works better than ten. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/42-building-tension-and-suspense/16/) — In Leeds and the Midlands "mardy" means sulky or grumpy, not scary; "dead" can mean very, as in "dead scary". - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/42-building-tension-and-suspense/17/) — "Sus" is short for suspicious; in New England "wicked" means very. - ← previous: [Describing: senses, showing and precise words](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/41-describing-senses-showing-and-precise-words/) - next →: [Editing and redrafting](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/43-editing-and-redrafting/) - ↑ back to [English](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/)