--- title: Songs and rhymes — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Songs and rhymes», a lesson of the french course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Songs are a clever way to learn: the tune carries the words into your memory, and many songs secretly teach numbers, body parts, clothes or how adjectives --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/31-songs-and-rhymes/) [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/) / Songs and rhymes # Songs and rhymes Lesson 31 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/31-songs-and-rhymes/). - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/31-songs-and-rhymes/1/) — Songs are a clever way to learn: the tune carries the words into your memory, and many songs secretly teach numbers, body parts, clothes or how adjectives agree. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/31-songs-and-rhymes/2/) — Picture a French classroom on a rainy afternoon: half the class sings "Frère Jacques, frère Jacques, dormez-vous ?" and the other half starts a moment later, so the song chases itself round the room as a round. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/31-songs-and-rhymes/3/) — Some songs are sillier or darker than they sound: "Alouette, gentille alouette" is a cheerful tune about plucking a lark's feathers, one body part at a time. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/31-songs-and-rhymes/4/) — Others are games: in "Promenons-nous dans les bois" one child is the wolf, getting dressed piece by piece, until he shouts "J'arrive !" and chases everyone. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/31-songs-and-rhymes/5/) — Frère Jacques is about a monk who has overslept: dormez-vous ? means "are you sleeping?" and sonnez les matines means "ring the bells for morning prayers"; in English the bells are already ringing. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/31-songs-and-rhymes/6/) — Alouette means a lark; je te plumerai means "I will pluck your feathers", and each verse adds a body part: la tête, le bec, le cou, le dos. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/31-songs-and-rhymes/7/) — Sur le pont d'Avignon: le pont is the bridge, on y danse means "people dance there" and tous en rond means "all in a circle"; the real bridge has only four arches left and stops in the middle of the river. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/31-songs-and-rhymes/8/) — Many people say dancers really danced sous le pont, under the bridge, on an island in the river. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/31-songs-and-rhymes/9/) — Au clair de la lune means "in the moonlight"; Pierrot is a sad clown with a white face, and prête-moi ta plume means "lend me your pen", an old feather pen. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/31-songs-and-rhymes/10/) — Une souris verte is a silly rhyme about a green mouse running in the grass; it says verte, not vert, because souris is feminine. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/31-songs-and-rhymes/11/) — In Promenons-nous dans les bois the wolf answers "Loup, y es-tu ?" with clothes he is putting on: ma chemise, mon pantalon, mes chaussettes. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/31-songs-and-rhymes/12/) — Un, deux, trois, nous irons au bois is a counting rhyme where each number rhymes with the next line: trois and bois, six and cerises, douze and rouges. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/31-songs-and-rhymes/13/) — Savez-vous planter les choux ? asks if you know how to plant cabbages, using a different body part in each verse: le doigt, le pied, le genou, le coude, le nez. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/31-songs-and-rhymes/14/) — Il pleut, il pleut, bergère is a song from 1780: "It's raining, shepherdess, bring in your white sheep" - white sheep is blancs moutons. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/31-songs-and-rhymes/15/) — Meunier, tu dors means "Miller, you are sleeping"; children sing it slower and then faster, like the mill wheel. - ← previous: [Questions and simple sentences](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/30-questions-and-simple-sentences/) - next →: [Christmas, Epiphany and pancake day French-style](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/32-christmas-epiphany-and-pancake-day-french-style/) - ↑ back to [French](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/)