--- title: Adoption — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Adoption», a lesson of the everyday course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Adoption is when a child whose birth parents can't bring them up joins a new family for good. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/522-adoption/) [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/) / Adoption # Adoption Lesson 522 of the everyday course of Mova's primary school: 46 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/522-adoption/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/522-adoption/0/) — Adoption is when a child whose birth parents can't bring them up joins a new family for good. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/522-adoption/1/) — The birth parents are the ones the child was born to; the adoptive parents are the ones who bring the child up. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/522-adoption/2/) — Both are real, in different ways. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/522-adoption/3/) — Adoption is made official by a judge in a family court. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/522-adoption/4/) — On Romilly's court day she wears her sparkly shoes. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/522-adoption/5/) — The judge smiles, signs the papers and says, «Congratulations.» Then he gives her a teddy from a basket. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/522-adoption/7/) — Romilly names the teddy Judge. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/522-adoption/8/) — Isla always knew she was adopted; her mum and dad told her when she was tiny, with a picture book about a family. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/522-adoption/9/) — Now she's nine and asks, «What was my birth mum like?» They don't know everything, but they show her a letter her birth mum wrote when Isla was a baby. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/522-adoption/10/) — Mila gets a letter from her birth mum once a year, passed on through the adoption agency; this is called letterbox contact. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/522-adoption/11/) — Mila keeps every letter in a shoebox with a ribbon round it. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/522-adoption/12/) — Kiran wonders if his birth dad has the same nose and the same laugh. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/522-adoption/13/) — His mum says that when he's grown up, he can usually find out more. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/522-adoption/14/) — Some children find out late, and that's hard. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/522-adoption/15/) — Callum learns at nine, from his cousin at a party: «Ye're adopted, did ye no' know?» («no'» is Scots for not). - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/522-adoption/16/) — He's shocked and furious, and storms home. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/522-adoption/17/) — His parents sit with him and admit they kept waiting for «the right time», which never came. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/522-adoption/18/) — «We should've told you years ago. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/522-adoption/19/) — Ask us anything.» It takes Callum a long time to feel okay. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/522-adoption/20/) — Most families now tell children early, so it's never a shock. - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/522-adoption/21/) — Adopted children hear all sorts. - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/522-adoption/22/) — A kid tells Marcus-Lee, «Your mom's not your REAL mom, that's facts» («facts» means that's true). - [23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/522-adoption/23/) — Marcus-Lee says, «She's real. - [24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/522-adoption/24/) — She's the one who's here.» Ana was born in Colombia and looks different from her mum and dad. - [25](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/522-adoption/25/) — In Boston people stare at them in the supermarket. - [26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/522-adoption/26/) — «It's wicked annoying,» Ana says («wicked» means very, in New England). - [28](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/522-adoption/28/) — Families made by adoption come in many shapes. - [29](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/522-adoption/29/) — Sam-Jo and his big sister Ruby were adopted together, so they never had to be apart; they're close, and they fight over the remote like any other brother and sister. - [30](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/522-adoption/30/) — Theo's sister Priya was adopted too, from a different birth family. - [31](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/522-adoption/31/) — «We're both adopted, so we're basically twins,» she jokes. - [32](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/522-adoption/32/) — They're four years apart. - [33](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/522-adoption/33/) — And every year on the day Zac's adoption became official, his family has pizza and a film. - [34](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/522-adoption/34/) — «Gotcha day!» he shouts. - [36](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/522-adoption/36/) — Either way, it's a celebration of becoming a family. - [37](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/522-adoption/37/) — Adoption is when a child joins a new family permanently because their birth parents can't bring them up. - [38](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/522-adoption/38/) — Birth parents are the parents a child was born to; adoptive parents are the parents who bring the child up. - [39](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/522-adoption/39/) — Adoptive parents are real parents. - [40](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/522-adoption/40/) — An adoption is made official by a judge in a family court. - [41](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/522-adoption/41/) — Many families tell children they are adopted from very early on, so it is never a shock; finding out late can be very hard. - [42](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/522-adoption/42/) — Adopted children are often curious about their birth family, and that is normal. - [43](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/522-adoption/43/) — Letterbox contact means letters between an adopted child's family and the birth family, passed on through an agency. - [44](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/522-adoption/44/) — When adopted people grow up, they can usually find out more about their birth family. - [45](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/522-adoption/45/) — Adoptive families can look different from each other; staring is rude, and a child chooses what to share. - [46](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/522-adoption/46/) — Brothers and sisters are sometimes adopted together so they can stay together. - [47](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/522-adoption/47/) — Some families celebrate the day an adoption became official, sometimes called «Gotcha day» or «family day». - [48](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/522-adoption/48/) — «Proper job» is West Country for well done, «no'» is Scots for not, «facts» means that's true, and «wicked» in New England means very. - ← previous: [Foster care](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/521-foster-care/) - next →: [Kinship care: living with Gran or an aunt](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/523-kinship-care-living-with-gran-or-an-aunt/) - ↑ back to [Everyday](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/)