--- title: Dead, a mile long and everyone: more everyday hyperbole — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Dead, a mile long and everyone: more everyday hyperbole», a lesson of the language course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: People use the biggest words they know for everyday feelings: «I'm DEAD», «the queue's a mile long», «EVERYONE's --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/45-dead-a-mile-long-and-everyone-more-everyday-hyperbole/) [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](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/) / Dead, a mile long and everyone: more e… # Dead, a mile long and everyone: more everyday hyperbole Lesson 45 of the language course of Mova's primary school: 12 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/language/45-dead-a-mile-long-and-everyone-more-everyday-hyperbole/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/45-dead-a-mile-long-and-everyone-more-everyday-hyperbole/0/) — People use the biggest words they know for everyday feelings: «I'm DEAD», «the queue's a mile long», «EVERYONE's got them», «I'll KILL you», «I'm melting», «I could eat a horse». - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/45-dead-a-mile-long-and-everyone-more-everyday-hyperbole/3/) — But hyperbole has a twin trap. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/45-dead-a-mile-long-and-everyone-more-everyday-hyperbole/4/) — Because people exaggerate so often, it is easy to stop listening, and some of those words can be true: a person who really cannot breathe, or a grown-up with real chest pain, needs help at once. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/45-dead-a-mile-long-and-everyone-more-everyday-hyperbole/5/) — So a wise listener does two things: reads the feeling behind the big words, and checks the real evidence — the sign at the ride, the thermometer, a face that is laughing or a face that is going pale. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/45-dead-a-mile-long-and-everyone-more-everyday-hyperbole/6/) — «I'm dead» and the skull emoji 💀 are young people's way of saying «this is hilarious». - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/45-dead-a-mile-long-and-everyone-more-everyday-hyperbole/7/) — If someone really looks as if they cannot breathe — gasping, lips going blue, not laughing — you get an adult straight away. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/45-dead-a-mile-long-and-everyone-more-everyday-hyperbole/9/) — «EVERYONE in my class has got them» usually means a few children, perhaps four out of thirty; the fair question is «who exactly?». - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/45-dead-a-mile-long-and-everyone-more-everyday-hyperbole/12/) — In Canada a «toque» (say «took») is a woolly hat, and «eh» is often added to the end of a sentence; minus twenty degrees can hurt bare ears and fingers. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/45-dead-a-mile-long-and-everyone-more-everyday-hyperbole/13/) — «I'm so hungry I could eat a horse» is a fixed saying for «very hungry»; nobody is eating a horse. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/45-dead-a-mile-long-and-everyone-more-everyday-hyperbole/15/) — «My feet are about to drop off» after a twelve-hour shift means they ache badly and she is worn out, not that her feet are coming off. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/45-dead-a-mile-long-and-everyone-more-everyday-hyperbole/16/) — «I nearly had a heart attack» after a fright means your heart was pounding; real chest pain, especially in a grown-up, is a 999 matter and never a joke. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/45-dead-a-mile-long-and-everyone-more-everyday-hyperbole/17/) — Hyperbole tells you how someone feels; a measurement (a sign, a clock, a thermometer) tells you how big something really is. - ← previous: [Starving, a million times and a ton: everyday hyperbole](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/44-starving-a-million-times-and-a-ton-everyday-hyperbole/) - next →: [Which number counts? Hyperbole and real numbers in maths](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/46-which-number-counts-hyperbole-and-real-numbers-in-maths/) - ↑ back to [Language](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/)