--- title: Soft words for hard things: school reports and teachers — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Soft words for hard things: school reports and teachers», a lesson of the euphemisms course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Teachers write reports that parents read, so they choose kind, careful words instead of blunt ones. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/16-school-reports/) [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: school rep… # Soft words for hard things: school reports and teachers Lesson 16 of the euphemisms course of Mova's primary school: 22 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/16-school-reports/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/16-school-reports/0/) — Teachers write reports that parents read, so they choose kind, careful words instead of blunt ones. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/16-school-reports/1/) — A report rarely says "lazy" or "bossy"; it says "capable of more" or "a natural leader", and the parent must read between the lines. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/16-school-reports/3/) — For example, "Tom has his own way of doing things" usually means Tom does not follow the teacher's instructions. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/16-school-reports/4/) — Some school words are official jargon, like "approaching standard" in the US or "requires improvement" for a UK school. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/16-school-reports/6/) — "Needs encouragement" on a report usually means the pupil is lazy or unmotivated (does not want to try). - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/16-school-reports/7/) — "Capable of more" means the pupil is underachieving: doing less well than he or she could. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/16-school-reports/9/) — "Easily distracted" means the pupil does not pay attention. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/16-school-reports/10/) — "Finds it hard to stay on task" means the pupil wastes time in class. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/16-school-reports/11/) — "Has his own way of doing things" means he does not follow instructions. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/16-school-reports/12/) — "Confident speaker" on a report can mean the pupil talks over other children. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/16-school-reports/13/) — "Creative spelling" is a joking way to say poor spelling. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/16-school-reports/14/) — "Natural leader" can be spin for bossy; spin means choosing nice-sounding words to make something bad sound good. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/16-school-reports/15/) — "Knows his own mind" is a kind way to say stubborn. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/16-school-reports/16/) — "Enthusiastic contributor" can mean the pupil shouts out answers without waiting. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/16-school-reports/17/) — "Would benefit from" (more practice, more reading) means the pupil badly needs it. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/16-school-reports/18/) — "Has made some progress" often means very little progress. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/16-school-reports/19/) — "Working at his own pace" means he is very slow. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/16-school-reports/20/) — "Not working to her full potential" is a polite way to say she is lazy. - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/16-school-reports/21/) — "A challenging class" means a badly behaved class. - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/16-school-reports/22/) — "Additional needs" (official UK term) means special educational needs or a disability. - [23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/16-school-reports/23/) — "A learning opportunity" is spin for a failure or a mistake. - [24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/16-school-reports/24/) — "Requires improvement" is an official UK inspection grade meaning the school is poor. - ← previous: [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/) - next →: [Soft words for hard things: school reports and teachers and animals and pets](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/17-school-and-pets/) - ↑ back to [Euphemisms](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/)