--- title: Language — a course of Mova's primary school, with trees and pragmatics description: How language works, for a curious pupil: sounds, words and rules, nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs, pronouns, prepositions and conjunctions, kinds of sentences, tenses, irregular verbs and brave mistakes, plurals, grammar puzzles and the spelling traps of their, there and they're. 55 lessons, 84 --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/) [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/) / Language # Language How language works, for a curious pupil: sounds, words and rules, nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs, pronouns, prepositions and conjunctions, kinds of sentences, tenses, irregular verbs and brave mistakes, plurals, grammar puzzles and the spelling traps of their, there and they're. The language course of Mova's primary school: 55 lessons, 847 sentences, each sentence with its syntax tree and pragmatics. Licence: [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) (Mova corpus 0.4). - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/1-what-language-is-sounds-words-and-rules/) — What language is: sounds, words and rules everyone shares — 18 sentences · Language is a code that a whole group of people shares: sounds (or hand signs, or letters) that stand for me… - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/2-nouns-names-of-things-people-places-ideas/) — Nouns: the names of things, people, places and ideas — 18 sentences · A noun is a naming word: it names a person (girl, Mia), a place (kitchen, London), a thing (cat, mat) or an… - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/3-verbs-doing-words-and-being-words/) — Verbs: doing words and being words — 18 sentences · A verb tells you what happens or what is: in "The dog barked" the verb is barked, and every full English sen… - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/4-adjectives-and-adverbs/) — Adjectives and adverbs: describing things and actions — 18 sentences · An adjective describes a noun (a scary dog, a red ball); an adverb tells you more about a verb: how, when, w… - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/5-pronouns-i-me-you-they-and-who/) — Pronouns: I, me, you, they and who — 20 sentences · A pronoun stands in for a noun so you don't repeat it: "Mia went to the shop. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/6-prepositions-and-conjunctions/) — Prepositions and conjunctions: little words that hold sentences together — 16 sentences · Prepositions are small words that show where, when or how things connect: on, under, in, behind, before, aft… - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/7-kinds-of-sentences/) — Kinds of sentences: statements, questions, commands, exclamations — 16 sentences · English has four kinds of sentence: a statement tells (The cake is huge.), a question asks (What is that cak… - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/8-tenses-past-present-future/) — Tenses: past, present and future — 17 sentences · Tense is the form of a verb that shows when something happens: I go (present), I went (past); time words lik… - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/9-irregular-verbs-goed-brung-and-brave-mistakes/) — Irregular verbs: goed, brung and other brave mistakes — 17 sentences · Most English verbs make the past by adding -ed: jump, jumped; these are regular verbs, but about 200 common… - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/10-plurals-mice-sheep-and-geese/) — Plurals that make no sense: mice, sheep and geese — 18 sentences · Most English plurals just add -s or -es (cat, cats; box, boxes), but some very old words change the vowel in… - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/11-grammar-puzzles-part-one/) — Grammar puzzles, part one — 16 sentences · Grammar puzzles are like maths puzzles with words: each has an exact answer, and the trick is to look at the… - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/12-spelling-traps-their-there-theyre/) — Spelling traps: their, there, they're and friends — 17 sentences · Some English words sound the same but are spelled differently and mean different things: they're (they are),… - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/13-silent-letters-and-the-mystery-of-ough/) — Silent letters and the mystery of -ough — 16 sentences · A silent letter is written but not said, like the k in knee or the b in lamb; most of them are fossils of so… - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/14-punctuation-that-changes-meaning/) — Punctuation that changes meaning — 18 sentences · Punctuation marks are the traffic signs of writing: they tell the reader where to stop, pause, ask or shout,… - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/15-the-apostrophe-war/) — The apostrophe war — 17 sentences · The apostrophe (') has two jobs: it shows missing letters (it's = it is, don't = do not) and it shows belong… - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/16-formal-and-informal-a-mate-versus-the-head-teacher/) — Formal and informal: a mate versus the head teacher — 19 sentences · Everyone has at least two ways of talking: informal (relaxed and chatty, for mates and family) and formal (c… - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/17-slang-and-how-it-changes-with-every-generation/) — Slang and how it changes with every generation — 16 sentences · Slang is the new, playful, in-group language of a time and a crowd; every generation makes its own, partly s… - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/18-accents-and-dialects-of-britain-and-ireland/) — Accents and dialects of Britain and Ireland — 18 sentences · An accent is how people pronounce words; a dialect is a whole local way of speaking, with its own words and… - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/19-accents-and-dialects-around-the-world/) — Accents and dialects around the world — 15 sentences · English is spoken all over the world, and every place has grown its own accent and words: a fizzy drink is "… - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/20-is-there-one-proper-english/) — Is there one proper English? The big arguments — 17 sentences · People have moaned that the young are "ruining English" for hundreds of years: the writer Jonathan Swift com… - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/21-british-and-american-words/) — British and American words — 13 sentences · Neither side is wrong: "colour" is right in Britain and "color" is right in America, just as "lift" and "ele… - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/22-where-english-came-from/) — Where English came from — 16 sentences · English was not always in England: about 1,500 years ago Angles, Saxons and Jutes sailed over the North Sea… - [23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/23-borrowed-words-french-norse-and-latin/) — Borrowed words: French, Norse and Latin — 16 sentences · At dinner Mum says "We're having beef tonight", not "cow tonight"; after 1066 French-speaking lords ate the… - [24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/24-borrowed-words-from-far-away/) — Borrowed words from far away: Hindi, Arabic, Chinese, Ukrainian and more — 15 sentences · Words travel with people, ships, trade and food; when English speakers met people from India, the Arab world… - [25](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/25-idioms-taken-literally/) — Idioms taken literally — 16 sentences · An idiom is a group of words whose meaning is not the meaning of its separate words; you have to learn it as… - [26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/26-phrasal-verbs-get-up-give-up-make-up/) — Phrasal verbs: get up, give up, make up — 13 sentences · A phrasal verb is a verb plus a small word like up, out, on, in or off, and together they make a new meaning… - [27](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/27-homophones-words-that-sound-the-same/) — Homophones: words that sound the same — 14 sentences · Ava reads "The knight rode at night" and frowns: out loud the two words are twins, but on paper they wear di… - [28](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/28-puns-and-jokes-that-need-a-pun/) — Puns and jokes that need a pun — 16 sentences · A pun is a joke that uses a word or sound with two meanings at once, so your brain flips between them and th… - [29](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/29-sarcasm-and-tone-of-voice/) — Sarcasm and tone of voice — 17 sentences · Sarcasm is saying the opposite of what you mean, usually to show you're annoyed or to tease; the words say o… - [30](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/30-texting-abbreviations-and-emoji/) — Texting, abbreviations and emoji — 14 sentences · Texting is a new kind of writing that behaves a lot like talking: short, fast, and full of codes like "brb",… - [31](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/31-how-babies-learn-to-talk/) — How babies learn to talk — 14 sentences · Babies start learning language before they can say a single word: newborns already prefer their mother's voi… - [32](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/32-sign-language/) — Sign language — 15 sentences · Sign languages are full, real languages made with the hands, face and body, with their own words and their o… - [33](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/33-ukrainian-compared-with-english/) — Ukrainian compared with English — 15 sentences · Ukrainian and English are distant cousins in the same huge language family, but they solve the same jobs in… - [34](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/34-mandarin-compared-with-english/) — Mandarin compared with English — 16 sentences · Mandarin Chinese is the language with the most native speakers on Earth, and it works very differently from… - [35](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/35-french-compared-with-english/) — French compared with English — 12 sentences · French is English's closest neighbour in words: after 1066 French-speaking rulers poured thousands of words… - [36](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/36-grammar-puzzles-part-two/) — Grammar puzzles, part two — 15 sentences · Words are like Lego: you can flip them, shuffle their letters, read them backwards and give them new jobs, a… - [37](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/37-building-words-prefixes-suffixes-and-compounds/) — Building words: prefixes, suffixes and compounds — 15 sentences · Long words are often built from smaller parts, like a train made of carriages: a root in the middle, a prefi… - [38](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/38-words-that-changed-their-meaning/) — Words that changed their meaning — 17 sentences · Words are not frozen: over hundreds of years their meanings drift, like boats slowly carried along by a rive… - [39](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/39-talking-well-politeness-listening-and-saying-sorry/) — Talking well: politeness, listening and saying sorry — 14 sentences · Talking well is not only about the right words; it's about how you treat the person in front of you: thankin… - [40](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/40-the-big-language-quiz/) — The big language quiz — 15 sentences · This is the last lesson of the language course: a big quiz that visits everything, from word classes and plu… - [41](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/41-alice-s-word-games-puns-parodies-and-nonsense/) — Alice's word games: puns, parodies and nonsense — 12 sentences · «Alice's Adventures in Wonderland» is a book you can read twice: once for the story, and once for the word g… - [42](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/42-kipling-s-word-games-best-beloved-stute-fish-humph-and-the-great-grey-green-greasy-limpopo/) — Kipling's word games: «Best Beloved», the 'Stute Fish, «Humph!» and the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo — 12 sentences · Kipling wrote the «Just So Stories» to be read aloud, the way he first told them to his own children at bedt… - [43](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/43-pan-panic-and-ulysses-the-old-myths-and-old-words-inside-the-wind-in-the-willows/) — Pan, panic and Ulysses: the old myths and old words inside «The Wind in the Willows» — 15 sentences · The book never names him, but he is Pan, a god from the myths of ancient Greece. - [44](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/44-starving-a-million-times-and-a-ton-everyday-hyperbole/) — Starving, a million times and a ton: everyday hyperbole — 16 sentences · Hyperbole (say it hy-PER-bo-lee) means making something sound much bigger, longer or heavier than it really… - [45](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/45-dead-a-mile-long-and-everyone-more-everyday-hyperbole/) — Dead, a mile long and everyone: more everyday hyperbole — 12 sentences · People use the biggest words they know for everyday feelings: «I'm DEAD», «the queue's a mile long», «EVERYO… - [46](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/46-which-number-counts-hyperbole-and-real-numbers-in-maths/) — Which number counts? Hyperbole and real numbers in maths — 12 sentences · Word problems and real life are full of numbers, but not every number is there to be counted. - [47](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/47-the-best-ever-and-shocking-adverts-and-headlines/) — The best ever and shocking: adverts and headlines — 11 sentences · Adverts and headlines use hyperbole for a job: to make you buy, click or read. - [48](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/48-my-dad-could-lift-a-car-playground-boasting/) — My dad could lift a car: playground boasting — 12 sentences · In the playground, boasts fly like footballs. - [49](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/49-a-bit-nippy-and-not-ideal-british-understatement/) — A bit nippy and not ideal: British understatement — 16 sentences · Understatement is the opposite of hyperbole: it makes things sound SMALLER than they are. - [50](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/50-not-unhappy-and-not-half-litotes/) — Not unhappy and not half: litotes — 16 sentences · Litotes (say it LIE-toe-teez) is a special kind of understatement: you say something good by saying «not» pl… - [51](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/51-just-a-scratch-and-i-m-fine-when-to-worry-and-tell-an-adult/) — Just a scratch and I'm fine: when to worry and tell an adult — 17 sentences · Sometimes playing down is dangerous. - [52](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/52-sarcasm-hyperbole-and-understatement-side-by-side/) — Sarcasm, hyperbole and understatement side by side — 13 sentences · Three kinds of talk bend the truth in three different ways. - [53](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/53-told-you-a-hundred-times-how-other-languages-exaggerate-and-play-down/) — Told you a hundred times: how other languages exaggerate and play down — 15 sentences · Every language exaggerates and plays things down, but each one picks its own pictures. - [54](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/54-off-with-her-head-and-the-finest-house-on-the-river-alice-and-toad/) — Off with her head and the finest house on the river: Alice and Toad — 16 sentences · Lewis Carroll and Kenneth Grahame both loved hyperbole and understatement, and they made jokes out of them. - [55](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/55-olympiad-hyperbole-and-downplaying-puzzles/) — ★★★ Olympiad: hyperbole and downplaying puzzles — 9 sentences · Each one hides a trap: a real number next to a fake one, a word that is hyperbole in one place and plain tru… - ← previous: [History](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/) - next →: [Lessons](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/lessons/) - ↑ back to [the school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/)