--- title: Soft words for hard things: drinking and drugs and religion and fate — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Soft words for hard things: drinking and drugs and religion and fate», a lesson of the euphemisms course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: People often feel awkward talking about drinking too much alcohol or taking drugs, so they use sof --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/31-drinking-drugs-religion-fate/) [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: drinking a… # Soft words for hard things: drinking and drugs and religion and fate Lesson 31 of the euphemisms course of Mova's primary school: 25 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/31-drinking-drugs-religion-fate/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/31-drinking-drugs-religion-fate/0/) — People often feel awkward talking about drinking too much alcohol or taking drugs, so they use soft or funny words instead: a famous person's office may say they are in hospital with "exhaustion" when the real trouble was drink or drugs. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/31-drinking-drugs-religion-fate/1/) — Some of these words are kind (they protect a person who is ill with addiction), some hide the truth, and some are jokes that make heavy drinking sound like harmless fun. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/31-drinking-drugs-religion-fate/2/) — For hundreds of years people also avoided saying the names of God, the Devil and hell out loud, because it felt rude or unlucky, so they said "the man upstairs", "old Nick" or "down below" instead. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/31-drinking-drugs-religion-fate/3/) — Bad luck gets soft words too: "fate had other plans" is a gentle way of saying that something simply did not happen or went wrong. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/31-drinking-drugs-religion-fate/4/) — A good reader asks: who is speaking, and are they being kind, polite, joking, or hiding something? - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/31-drinking-drugs-religion-fate/5/) — "One for the road" means one last alcoholic drink before leaving. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/31-drinking-drugs-religion-fate/6/) — "Went into treatment" means a person went to a clinic (rehab) to get help with an addiction. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/31-drinking-drugs-religion-fate/7/) — "Exhaustion", in a press statement about a famous person, often hides a crisis with drink or drugs. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/31-drinking-drugs-religion-fate/8/) — "For medicinal purposes" is a joke meaning for drinking or getting high, not really for health. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/31-drinking-drugs-religion-fate/9/) — "The drink", said in Ireland as in "he had a problem with the drink", means alcoholism, being unable to stop drinking alcohol. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/31-drinking-drugs-religion-fate/10/) — "A session", in Ireland and Britain, means a long bout of heavy drinking. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/31-drinking-drugs-religion-fate/11/) — "A skinful" (UK slang) means enough alcohol to make someone very drunk. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/31-drinking-drugs-religion-fate/12/) — "Tied one on" (US slang) means got drunk. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/31-drinking-drugs-religion-fate/13/) — "Wobbly pops" (UK, humorous) means alcoholic drinks. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/31-drinking-drugs-religion-fate/14/) — "The man upstairs" means God. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/31-drinking-drugs-religion-fate/15/) — "The big guy upstairs" (US, humorous) means God. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/31-drinking-drugs-religion-fate/16/) — "The good Lord willing" means if God allows it, that is, if nothing goes wrong. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/31-drinking-drugs-religion-fate/17/) — "An act of God", in insurance (paying a company so that it pays you if your things are damaged) and contracts, means a natural disaster such as a flood or storm that nobody can be blamed or made to pay for. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/31-drinking-drugs-religion-fate/18/) — "The other place" (old-fashioned, UK) means hell. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/31-drinking-drugs-religion-fate/19/) — "Down below" (old-fashioned) means hell. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/31-drinking-drugs-religion-fate/20/) — "Old Nick" (old-fashioned, UK) means the Devil. - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/31-drinking-drugs-religion-fate/21/) — "Old Scratch" (old-fashioned, US) means the Devil. - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/31-drinking-drugs-religion-fate/22/) — "The deuce", in old exclamations like "what the deuce?", means the Devil. - [23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/31-drinking-drugs-religion-fate/23/) — "The dickens", in exclamations like "what the dickens is that?", means the Devil, not the writer Charles Dickens. - [24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/31-drinking-drugs-religion-fate/24/) — "Fate had other plans" means that something did not happen or went wrong. - ← previous: [Soft words for hard things: drinking and drugs](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/30-drinking-and-drugs/) - next →: [Soft words for hard things: religion and fate and failure and mistakes](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/32-religion-fate-failure/) - ↑ back to [Euphemisms](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/)