--- title: Clothes — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Clothes», a lesson of the french course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Some clothes words are traps for English speakers: une veste is a jacket, not a vest, des baskets are trainers, not baskets, and une robe is a dress, not a dressin --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/17-clothes/) [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/) / Clothes # Clothes Lesson 17 of the french course of Mova's primary school: 16 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/17-clothes/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/17-clothes/0/) — Some clothes words are traps for English speakers: une veste is a jacket, not a vest, des baskets are trainers, not baskets, and une robe is a dress, not a dressing gown. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/17-clothes/2/) — Word endings give hints about gender: words ending in -eau, like un chapeau (a hat) and un manteau (a coat), are almost always masculine, and words ending in -ette, like une casquette (a cap), almost always feminine. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/17-clothes/3/) — Colours still agree with clothes: black shoes are des chaussures noires, with an e because chaussure is feminine and an s because there are two. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/17-clothes/4/) — Picture a cold morning in Strasbourg: the host mum says Mets ton manteau, il fait froid !, "Put your coat on, it's cold!", just like grown-ups everywhere. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/17-clothes/5/) — un pantalon ("pahn-ta-LON") is one pair of trousers and is singular; so are un jean and un short. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/17-clothes/6/) — un pull ("PUL") is a jumper, borrowed from the English word pullover and made shorter. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/17-clothes/7/) — une jupe ("ZHUP") is a skirt, une robe ("ROB") is a dress, une chemise ("shuh-MEEZ") is a shirt; a dressing gown is une robe de chambre. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/17-clothes/8/) — un chapeau ("sha-POH") is a hat and une casquette ("kass-KET") is a cap: -eau words are almost always masculine and -ette words almost always feminine. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/17-clothes/9/) — une veste is a jacket and des baskets are trainers; both are false friends. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/17-clothes/10/) — Most state schools in France have no uniform, and children wear their own clothes; school uniform is l'uniforme scolaire. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/17-clothes/11/) — des tongs ("TONG") are flip-flops, which Australians call thongs and New Zealanders call jandals; des sandales are sandals. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/17-clothes/12/) — des chaussures noires means black shoes: the noun takes s and the colour takes e (feminine) and s (plural). - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/17-clothes/13/) — Mets ton manteau ! means "Put your coat on!"; mets comes from mettre, to put on; un manteau is a coat. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/17-clothes/14/) — un maillot de bain ("ma-YO duh BAN") is a swimsuit or swimming trunks; le maillot jaune is the yellow jersey in the Tour de France. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/17-clothes/16/) — une écharpe ("ay-SHARP") is a scarf, des gants ("GAHN") are gloves and un bonnet ("bo-NAY") is a woolly hat; the t is silent in gants and bonnet. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/17-clothes/17/) — Slang here: "bruv" means mate; "bummer" (US, older) means what a shame; "ah'm no" (Scotland) means I'm not; "Ma" (Ireland) means Mum; "tamping" (Wales) means fuming; "you plum" (London) means you silly; "it's giving" (US Gen Z) means it looks good; "chur" (New Zealand) means great or thanks. - ← previous: [The body](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/16-the-body/) - next →: [Food and drink](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/18-food-and-drink/) - ↑ back to [French](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/)