--- title: Soft words for hard things: pregnancy and birth and relations and family — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Soft words for hard things: pregnancy and birth and relations and family», a lesson of the euphemisms course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Families use soft words for things people feel shy or sad about: a hurried wedding, where babi --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/12-birth-and-couples/) [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/) / [Euphemisms](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/) / Soft words for hard things: pregnancy… # Soft words for hard things: pregnancy and birth and relations and family Lesson 12 of the euphemisms course of Mova's primary school: 21 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/euphemisms/12-birth-and-couples/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/12-birth-and-couples/0/) — Families use soft words for things people feel shy or sad about: a hurried wedding, where babies come from, a couple who split up. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/12-birth-and-couples/4/) — "Shotgun wedding" means a wedding hurried because a baby is on the way (jokey). - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/12-birth-and-couples/5/) — "Seven-month baby" was an old gossip phrase for a baby that came less than nine months after the wedding. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/12-birth-and-couples/6/) — "Found under a cabbage leaf" is a jokey story told to small children about where babies come from (UK). - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/12-birth-and-couples/7/) — "Her time came" means she went into labour and the baby began to be born (old-fashioned). - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/12-birth-and-couples/8/) — "A little stranger" means a baby that is expected (old-fashioned, UK). - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/12-birth-and-couples/9/) — "Partner" means a boyfriend, girlfriend or someone you live with without marrying. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/12-birth-and-couples/10/) — "Friend" can politely mean a boyfriend or girlfriend. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/12-birth-and-couples/11/) — "Companion" means a long-term partner who is not a husband or wife (old-fashioned). - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/12-birth-and-couples/12/) — "A couple" means two people in a romantic relationship. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/12-birth-and-couples/13/) — "Seeing someone" means dating someone. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/12-birth-and-couples/14/) — "An item" means two people are in a relationship. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/12-birth-and-couples/15/) — "Going steady" means dating one person seriously (old-fashioned, US). - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/12-birth-and-couples/16/) — "Between relationships" means single. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/12-birth-and-couples/17/) — "Between marriages" means divorced and not married again (jokey). - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/12-birth-and-couples/18/) — "Separated" means a married couple living apart, before or instead of a divorce. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/12-birth-and-couples/19/) — "Living apart" means married but no longer living together. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/12-birth-and-couples/20/) — "Conscious uncoupling" means a divorce or break-up (jokey, from a famous celebrity). - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/12-birth-and-couples/21/) — "Parted ways" means broke up. - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/12-birth-and-couples/22/) — "It didn't work out" means the marriage or relationship ended. - [23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/12-birth-and-couples/23/) — "Broken home" is an old-fashioned phrase for a family where the parents divorced. - ← previous: [Soft words for hard things: pregnancy and birth](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/11-pregnancy-and-birth/) - next →: [Soft words for hard things: relations and family](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/13-relations-and-family/) - ↑ back to [Euphemisms](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/)