--- title: Soft words for hard things: religion and fate and failure and mistakes — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Soft words for hard things: religion and fate and failure and mistakes», a lesson of the euphemisms course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Many everyday phrases soften the word God, such as "goodness knows" or "for heaven's sake"; they --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/32-religion-fate-failure/) [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: religion a… # Soft words for hard things: religion and fate and failure and mistakes Lesson 32 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/32-religion-fate-failure/). - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/32-religion-fate-failure/1/) — Many everyday phrases soften the word God, such as "goodness knows" or "for heaven's sake"; they are polite ways of saying "God knows" or "for God's sake". - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/32-religion-fate-failure/2/) — Some words are chosen to include everyone or to avoid naming one religion, like "happy holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas", or to describe someone's faith politely, like "lapsed". - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/32-religion-fate-failure/3/) — And some words spin a failure to sound better, such as calling a bad result "suboptimal" or a disaster "a blessing in disguise". - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/32-religion-fate-failure/4/) — "It wasn't meant to be" means it failed and you could not have changed it. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/32-religion-fate-failure/5/) — "Everything happens for a reason" is said after something bad, to mean you should accept it. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/32-religion-fate-failure/6/) — "A higher power" means God, said without naming any religion. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/32-religion-fate-failure/7/) — "The good book" means the Bible. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/32-religion-fate-failure/8/) — "Heaven forbid" means I really hope that does not happen. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/32-religion-fate-failure/9/) — "Goodness knows" means God knows, that is, nobody knows. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/32-religion-fate-failure/10/) — "Heaven knows" means God knows, that is, nobody knows. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/32-religion-fate-failure/11/) — "For heaven's sake" is a polite way of saying "for God's sake", said in annoyance. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/32-religion-fate-failure/12/) — "It's in God's hands" means nothing more can be done and we must wait and see. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/32-religion-fate-failure/13/) — "A blessing in disguise" means a bad thing that may turn out to be good. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/32-religion-fate-failure/14/) — "The luck of the draw" means it was chance, not your fault. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/32-religion-fate-failure/15/) — "A man of the cloth" means a priest or clergyman, someone whose job is to lead a church. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/32-religion-fate-failure/16/) — "Lapsed", as in "a lapsed Catholic", means no longer practising one's religion (following its prayers, services and rules). - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/32-religion-fate-failure/17/) — "Non-practising" means belonging to a religion but not following it. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/32-religion-fate-failure/18/) — "Spiritual but not religious" means a person does not belong to or attend any organised religion. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/32-religion-fate-failure/19/) — "Happy holidays" (mostly US) is a seasonal greeting that avoids naming Christmas. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/32-religion-fate-failure/20/) — "A holiday tree" (US, official) means a Christmas tree, called by a name that avoids religion. - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/32-religion-fate-failure/22/) — "Lady Luck" means chance or fortune, spoken of as if she were a person. - [23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/32-religion-fate-failure/23/) — "Suboptimal" (jargon) means bad or poor. - ← previous: [Soft words for hard things: drinking and drugs and religion and fate](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/31-drinking-drugs-religion-fate/) - next →: [Soft words for hard things: failure and mistakes](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/33-failure-and-mistakes/) - ↑ back to [Euphemisms](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/)