--- title: Soft words for hard things: failure and mistakes and stupidity and madness — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Soft words for hard things: failure and mistakes and stupidity and madness», a lesson of the euphemisms course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Others shift the blame: when a helpdesk says "user error", it means the machine is fine and --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/35-mistakes-and-stupidity/) [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: failure an… # Soft words for hard things: failure and mistakes and stupidity and madness Lesson 35 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/35-mistakes-and-stupidity/). - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/35-mistakes-and-stupidity/1/) — Others shift the blame: when a helpdesk says "user error", it means the machine is fine and the person using it got it wrong. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/35-mistakes-and-stupidity/2/) — Calling someone stupid is rude, so English has dozens of jokey ways to say it, many of them pictures of something missing: "a few sandwiches short of a picnic" means the person's head is missing a few "pieces". - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/35-mistakes-and-stupidity/3/) — Australians are famous for these: "a sausage short of a barbie" or "a few kangaroos loose in the top paddock". - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/35-mistakes-and-stupidity/5/) — "A teachable moment" (US jargon) means a mistake to learn from. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/35-mistakes-and-stupidity/7/) — "A happy accident" means a mistake that turned out well. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/35-mistakes-and-stupidity/8/) — "An honest mistake" means a mistake made without bad intent. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/35-mistakes-and-stupidity/9/) — "Fell short" means failed to reach the goal. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/35-mistakes-and-stupidity/10/) — "Not the sharpest tool in the shed" is a joke meaning not very clever. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/35-mistakes-and-stupidity/11/) — "Not the brightest spark" (UK) means not very clever. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/35-mistakes-and-stupidity/12/) — "Not the brightest bulb" (US) means not very clever. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/35-mistakes-and-stupidity/13/) — "A few sandwiches short of a picnic" (UK) means stupid or a bit mad. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/35-mistakes-and-stupidity/14/) — "A brick short of a load" (Australia) means stupid or a bit mad. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/35-mistakes-and-stupidity/15/) — "Not playing with a full deck" (US) means stupid or a bit mad. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/35-mistakes-and-stupidity/16/) — "The lights are on but nobody's home" means a person is stupid or not paying attention. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/35-mistakes-and-stupidity/17/) — "A few kangaroos loose in the top paddock" (Australia) means stupid or a bit mad. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/35-mistakes-and-stupidity/18/) — "Not the full quid" (Australian slang) means not very clever or a bit mad. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/35-mistakes-and-stupidity/20/) — "A stubby short of a six-pack" (Australia) means stupid or a bit mad; a stubby is a small bottle of beer. - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/35-mistakes-and-stupidity/21/) — "A bit slow" means not very clever. - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/35-mistakes-and-stupidity/22/) — "Not the quickest" is a polite way of saying not very clever. - [23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/35-mistakes-and-stupidity/23/) — "Not exactly a rocket scientist" is a joke meaning not clever. - [24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/35-mistakes-and-stupidity/24/) — "No Einstein" is a joke meaning not clever; Albert Einstein was a very famous and very clever scientist. - ← previous: [Soft words for hard things: failure and mistakes](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/34-failure-and-mistakes/) - next →: [Soft words for hard things: stupidity and madness](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/36-dim-and-round-the-bend/) - ↑ back to [Euphemisms](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/)