--- title: Soft words for hard things: stupidity and madness and rudeness and swearing — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Soft words for hard things: stupidity and madness and rudeness and swearing», a lesson of the euphemisms course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: The listener has to finish the picture: if a part is missing, the person's mind is missing --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/37-bats-and-gosh/) [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: stupidity… # Soft words for hard things: stupidity and madness and rudeness and swearing Lesson 37 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/37-bats-and-gosh/). - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/37-bats-and-gosh/1/) — The listener has to finish the picture: if a part is missing, the person's mind is missing a part too. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/37-bats-and-gosh/2/) — That is why these phrases are funny but also unkind. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/37-bats-and-gosh/3/) — Swearing has soft words too. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/37-bats-and-gosh/4/) — Long ago it was thought wrong to say God's or Jesus's name in anger, so people bent the words: God became "gosh" and "golly", Jesus became "gee" and "jeez", Christ became "crikey" and "cripes". - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/37-bats-and-gosh/5/) — So when a grandmother drops a cup and cries "Gosh darn it!", she is saying a much stronger curse in a polite shape that nobody minds. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/37-bats-and-gosh/6/) — "Bats in the belfry" means mad; it is an old-fashioned joke, as if bats were flapping about in the bell tower of one's head. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/37-bats-and-gosh/7/) — "The elevator doesn't go all the way to the top" means a person is stupid or a bit mad; it is an American joke. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/37-bats-and-gosh/8/) — "Lost the plot" means gone mad or started behaving in a wild, senseless way; it is British slang. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/37-bats-and-gosh/9/) — "A bit touched" means slightly mad; it is old-fashioned and gentle, often heard in Ireland. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/37-bats-and-gosh/11/) — "One card short of a full deck" means stupid or a bit mad; it is a humorous phrase. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/37-bats-and-gosh/12/) — "Not the sharpest knife in the drawer" means not very clever; it is a humorous phrase. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/37-bats-and-gosh/13/) — "Two bricks shy of a load" means stupid or a bit mad; it is American and humorous. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/37-bats-and-gosh/14/) — "Gosh" is a mild word used instead of "God" when surprised. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/37-bats-and-gosh/15/) — "Golly" is an old-fashioned mild word used instead of "God". - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/37-bats-and-gosh/16/) — "Gee" is a mild word used instead of "Jesus"; it is mostly American. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/37-bats-and-gosh/17/) — "Jeez" is a mild word used instead of "Jesus", said in surprise or annoyance. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/37-bats-and-gosh/18/) — "Jeepers" is an old-fashioned American mild word used instead of "Jesus". - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/37-bats-and-gosh/19/) — "Crikey" is a mild word used instead of "Christ"; it is British and Australian. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/37-bats-and-gosh/20/) — "Cripes" is an old-fashioned mild word used instead of "Christ". - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/37-bats-and-gosh/21/) — "For crying out loud" is a mild way of saying "for Christ's sake", showing annoyance. - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/37-bats-and-gosh/22/) — "For Pete's sake" is a mild way of saying "for God's sake", showing annoyance. - [23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/37-bats-and-gosh/23/) — "Gosh darn it" is an American polite form of the curse "God damn it". - [24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/37-bats-and-gosh/24/) — "Darn" is a mild word used instead of the swear word "damn". - [25](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/37-bats-and-gosh/25/) — "Dang" is a mild word used instead of "damn"; it is American. - ← previous: [Soft words for hard things: stupidity and madness](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/36-dim-and-round-the-bend/) - next →: [Soft words for hard things: rudeness and swearing](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/38-drat-and-the-f-word/) - ↑ back to [Euphemisms](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/)