--- title: Covering for a friend — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Covering for a friend», a lesson of the everyday course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Ben's mate Jamie kicked a ball through the classroom window in Liverpool. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/436-covering-for-a-friend/) [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/) / [Everyday](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/) / Covering for a friend # Covering for a friend Lesson 436 of the everyday course of Mova's primary school: 31 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/everyday/436-covering-for-a-friend/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/436-covering-for-a-friend/0/) — Ben's mate Jamie kicked a ball through the classroom window in Liverpool. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/436-covering-for-a-friend/1/) — The teacher asked Ben if he'd seen who. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/436-covering-for-a-friend/3/) — Ben said «I didn't see.» The camera showed Jamie — and Ben standing right next to him. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/436-covering-for-a-friend/4/) — The teacher was disappointed in Ben too. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/436-covering-for-a-friend/5/) — Ben said later he wished he'd just said «Ask Jamie, sir.» - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/436-covering-for-a-friend/6/) — Covering means lying or staying quiet to protect a friend. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/436-covering-for-a-friend/7/) — You don't have to tell on a friend for every small thing, but lying for them is different, and it often drags you in. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/436-covering-for-a-friend/9/) — Josh said Liam's phone in class was his; the teacher took Josh's phone for the day, and Liam didn't even say thanks. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/436-covering-for-a-friend/10/) — Ella agreed to say Niamh was at her house; Niamh was really in town with older kids, and when the mums talked, both girls were in trouble. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/436-covering-for-a-friend/11/) — Some covering is about real wrong. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/436-covering-for-a-friend/12/) — Grace in Toronto saw Ava take a chocolate bar without paying and told the shopkeeper «We didn't take anything, eh.» The shop had a camera and called both mums; Grace felt sick for days. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/436-covering-for-a-friend/13/) — «I didn't take anything» — said only about yourself — would have been honest. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/436-covering-for-a-friend/15/) — When his dad came round, Leo saw the cut and told the truth. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/436-covering-for-a-friend/16/) — When someone has been hurt, covering is never right. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/436-covering-for-a-friend/17/) — Silence can cover too. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/436-covering-for-a-friend/19/) — Kiri in Rotorua said nothing when her mum asked about the storm; she and her friend had gone to the creek, which flooded. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/436-covering-for-a-friend/20/) — Weeks later Mum found muddy jandals (flip-flops) with creek weed on them, and told her the creek had swept a dog away that day. - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/436-covering-for-a-friend/21/) — Not all help is lying. - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/436-covering-for-a-friend/22/) — Alfie lent his friend his own PE kit and sat out PE himself. - [23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/436-covering-for-a-friend/23/) — Nobody lied about anything; Alfie just took the trouble, and his friend bought him a doughnut. - [24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/436-covering-for-a-friend/24/) — Helping a friend with your own sacrifice is different from lying for them — know the difference. - [25](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/436-covering-for-a-friend/25/) — Covering means lying or staying silent to protect someone who did something wrong. - [28](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/436-covering-for-a-friend/28/) — Lying for a friend often gets you into the same trouble, the friend may not even thank you, and the friend learns nothing. - [29](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/436-covering-for-a-friend/29/) — Giving a false alibi about where someone was can put them in danger if something goes wrong. - [30](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/436-covering-for-a-friend/30/) — Lying for someone who stole makes you part of it; speak only for yourself. - [31](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/436-covering-for-a-friend/31/) — When someone has been hurt, covering is never right, because the hurt person needs grown-ups to know. - [32](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/436-covering-for-a-friend/32/) — When a whole group stays silent, everyone may be punished, and the person who did it can end it by owning up. - [33](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/436-covering-for-a-friend/33/) — Saying something technically true to hide the truth is still a kind of trick. - [34](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/436-covering-for-a-friend/34/) — A secret about danger, like playing by a flooding creek, is not yours to keep. - [35](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/436-covering-for-a-friend/35/) — Helping a friend at your own cost, like lending your kit, is kindness, not lying. - [36](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/436-covering-for-a-friend/36/) — To «grass» (UK) means to tell on someone; «sound» (Liverpool, Ireland) means good or all right; «jandals» (NZ) are flip-flops; Canadians often end a sentence with «eh», meaning «right?». - ← previous: [Boasting cousins and made-up holidays](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/435-boasting-cousins-and-made-up-holidays/) - next →: [When not to keep a friend's secret](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/437-when-not-to-keep-a-friends-secret/) - ↑ back to [Everyday](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/)