--- title: The body — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «The body», a lesson of the french course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: The quickest way to learn the body in French is a game: in Jacques a dit, touchez la tête ! means "Simon says, touch your head!", and anyone who touches a knee is --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/16-the-body/) [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/) / [French](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/) / The body # The body Lesson 16 of the french course of Mova's primary school: 15 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/french/16-the-body/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/16-the-body/0/) — The quickest way to learn the body in French is a game: in Jacques a dit, touchez la tête ! means "Simon says, touch your head!", and anyone who touches a knee is out. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/16-the-body/1/) — Every body part has its own gender that has nothing to do with you: a boy says ma bouche (my mouth) and a girl says mon nez (my nose). - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/16-the-body/2/) — To say something hurts, use j'ai mal à: j'ai mal à la tête (my head hurts), j'ai mal au ventre (my tummy hurts), j'ai mal aux dents (my teeth hurt). - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/16-the-body/3/) — Some plurals are odd: one eye is un œil but two eyes are deux yeux, and one knee is un genou but knees are des genoux. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/16-the-body/5/) — la tête ("TET") is the head; the ê sounds like "eh". - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/16-the-body/6/) — un œil is one eye and les yeux ("lay-ZYUH") are the eyes; this is the oddest plural in French. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/16-the-body/7/) — j'ai mal à + body part means it hurts: à + le becomes au (j'ai mal au ventre), à + la stays à la (j'ai mal à la tête), à + les becomes aux (j'ai mal aux dents). - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/16-the-body/8/) — les cheveux ("lay shuh-VUH") is the hair on your head, always plural; un cheveu is one single hair. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/16-the-body/9/) — le nez ("NAY") is the nose; the z is silent and the plural is also nez. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/16-the-body/10/) — une main ("MAN") is a hand, un pied ("PYAY") is a foot with a silent d, le bras ("BRA") is the arm and la jambe ("ZHAHNB") is the leg. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/16-the-body/11/) — The song Tête, épaules, genoux et pieds is the French "Head, shoulders, knees and toes"; un genou (knee) becomes des genoux in the plural. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/16-the-body/12/) — une dent ("DAHN") is a tooth; j'ai mal aux dents means my teeth hurt. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/16-the-body/14/) — la bouche ("BOOSH") is the mouth and is feminine: ma bouche, even for a boy. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/16-the-body/15/) — J'ai les yeux bleus means "I have blue eyes"; the colour comes after yeux and takes an s because yeux is plural. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/16-the-body/16/) — Slang here: "ey up" (Yorkshire) means hey; "lush" (Wales) means lovely; "like" (Leeds) adds a shrug; "eh" (Canada) asks you to agree; "wee" (Scotland) means small; "heaps good" (Australia) means really good; "boss" (Liverpool) means great; "proper job" (West Country) means great; "y'all" (Atlanta) means you all. - ← previous: [Pets and animals](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/15-pets-and-animals/) - next →: [Clothes](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/17-clothes/) - ↑ back to [French](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/)