--- title: Soft words for hard things: relations and family and children's behaviour — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Soft words for hard things: relations and family and children's behaviour», a lesson of the euphemisms course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Parents and carers use soft words about children's bad behaviour so they do not sound cross o --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/14-family-and-behaviour/) [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: relations… # Soft words for hard things: relations and family and children's behaviour Lesson 14 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/14-family-and-behaviour/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/14-family-and-behaviour/0/) — Parents and carers use soft words about children's bad behaviour so they do not sound cross or shame the child in public. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/14-family-and-behaviour/1/) — «He's just tired» often means he is screaming, and «she's spirited» often means she will not do as she is told. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/14-family-and-behaviour/3/) — Vivid example: in the supermarket a toddler lies on the floor kicking and yelling, and his mum smiles at the cashier: «Sorry, he's a bit overexcited.» - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/14-family-and-behaviour/4/) — "A domestic" means a violent quarrel at home (police and news jargon, UK). - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/14-family-and-behaviour/5/) — "Weekend dad" means a divorced father who sees his children only at weekends. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/14-family-and-behaviour/6/) — "Co-parenting" means parents who are apart still raising their children together. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/14-family-and-behaviour/7/) — "Empty nester" means a parent whose children have grown up and left home. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/14-family-and-behaviour/8/) — "Tired" said about a child often means cranky (grumpy) or having a tantrum (a fit of screaming and crying). - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/14-family-and-behaviour/9/) — "Overexcited" said about a child often means out of control. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/14-family-and-behaviour/10/) — "A handful" means hard to control. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/14-family-and-behaviour/12/) — "Strong-willed" means defiant, refusing to obey. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/14-family-and-behaviour/13/) — "High-spirited" means noisy and unruly (not keeping to the rules). - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/14-family-and-behaviour/14/) — "Cheeky monkey" means a naughty or rude child, said fondly (UK). - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/14-family-and-behaviour/15/) — "Little terror" means a very naughty child (jokey). - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/14-family-and-behaviour/17/) — "Going through a phase" means behaving badly for a while. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/14-family-and-behaviour/18/) — "The terrible twos" means the difficult stage of a toddler around age two. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/14-family-and-behaviour/19/) — "Threenager" means a defiant three-year-old acting like a moody teenager (jokey). - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/14-family-and-behaviour/20/) — "Time out" means a short punishment of being sent to sit alone. - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/14-family-and-behaviour/21/) — "The naughty step" means a place where a child must sit as a punishment (UK). - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/14-family-and-behaviour/22/) — "Made a bad choice" is teacher jargon for misbehaved. - [23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/14-family-and-behaviour/23/) — "Use your words" means stop hitting, screaming or whining and say what you want. - ← previous: [Soft words for hard things: relations and family](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/13-relations-and-family/) - next →: [Soft words for hard things: children's behaviour and school reports and teachers](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/15-behaviour-and-school-reports/) - ↑ back to [Euphemisms](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/)