--- title: Soft words for hard things: school reports and teachers and animals and pets — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Soft words for hard things: school reports and teachers and animals and pets», a lesson of the euphemisms course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Schools soften bad news about trouble and failure, and families soften bad news about pets --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/17-school-and-pets/) [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 and animals and pets Lesson 17 of the euphemisms course of Mova's primary school: 24 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/17-school-and-pets/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/17-school-and-pets/0/) — Schools soften bad news about trouble and failure, and families soften bad news about pets. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/17-school-and-pets/1/) — A teacher may say "a quiet word" instead of "a telling-off", and an official report may say "special measures" for a failing school. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/17-school-and-pets/2/) — With pets, adults often hide death from children: "Rex went to live on a farm" may mean Rex died or was put down. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/17-school-and-pets/3/) — Vets and owners also use soft words for the operation that stops a pet from having babies: "fixed", "done", "seen to". - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/17-school-and-pets/4/) — The kind words protect feelings, but you still need to know what really happened. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/17-school-and-pets/6/) — "Behaviour management" is jargon for discipline and punishment. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/17-school-and-pets/7/) — "A quiet word" (everyday UK) means a private telling-off. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/17-school-and-pets/8/) — "Invited to see the head" means sent to the head teacher to be punished. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/17-school-and-pets/9/) — "Deferred success" is a joking UK phrase for failure. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/17-school-and-pets/10/) — "Not yet" used as a grade (US) means fail. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/17-school-and-pets/11/) — "Vivid imagination" on a report can mean the pupil tells fibs or daydreams. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/17-school-and-pets/12/) — "Reluctant reader" means a child who dislikes or struggles with reading. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/17-school-and-pets/13/) — "Struggling learner" means a weak student. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/17-school-and-pets/14/) — "Late bloomer" means a child who is behind other children for now. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/17-school-and-pets/15/) — "Well known to staff" is a joking UK way to say the pupil is often in trouble. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/17-school-and-pets/16/) — "Put to sleep" means an animal was killed gently by a vet. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/17-school-and-pets/17/) — "Put down" means an animal was killed, usually by a vet. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/17-school-and-pets/18/) — "Humanely destroyed" (official) means an animal was killed by officials. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/17-school-and-pets/19/) — "Went to live on a farm" is what adults, especially in the US, tell children when a pet has died or been put down. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/17-school-and-pets/20/) — "Crossed the rainbow bridge" means the pet died. - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/17-school-and-pets/21/) — "Gone to doggy heaven" is a gentle, half-joking way to tell a child the dog died. - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/17-school-and-pets/22/) — "Fixed" (US) means neutered or spayed, an operation so the pet cannot have babies. - [23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/17-school-and-pets/23/) — "Done" (UK) means a pet has been neutered. - [24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/17-school-and-pets/24/) — "Seen to" (UK) means a pet has been neutered. - ← previous: [Soft words for hard things: school reports and teachers](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/16-school-reports/) - next →: [Soft words for hard things: animals and pets and money and poverty](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/18-pets-and-money/) - ↑ back to [Euphemisms](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/)