--- title: The brother who never does anything wrong: double standards at home — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «The brother who never does anything wrong: double standards at home», a lesson of the world course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Mum: "He must have done it on a different sheet." The evidence says one thing, and Mum invents an excuse --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/165-the-brother-who-never-does-anything-wrong-double-standards/) [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/) / [World](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/) / The brother who never does anything wr… # The brother who never does anything wrong: double standards at home Lesson 165 of the world course of Mova's primary school: 21 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/world/165-the-brother-who-never-does-anything-wrong-double-standards/). - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/165-the-brother-who-never-does-anything-wrong-double-standards/1/) — Mum: "He must have done it on a different sheet." The evidence says one thing, and Mum invents an excuse so her belief can stay. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/165-the-brother-who-never-does-anything-wrong-double-standards/2/) — A double standard is judging the same thing differently depending on who did it. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/165-the-brother-who-never-does-anything-wrong-double-standards/3/) — Ben breaks a vase: "He's only little." Hannah broke a cup at the same age: "That was different, you were naughty." Same act, same age, two judgements. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/165-the-brother-who-never-does-anything-wrong-double-standards/4/) — Special pleading is a rule for everyone except me: "No phones at the table," says Dad, then checks his own: "That's different, it's work." Or: "Sugar is bad," says Dad, eating a doughnut, "but grown-ups need energy." - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/165-the-brother-who-never-does-anything-wrong-double-standards/5/) — Watch out for "always" and "never". - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/165-the-brother-who-never-does-anything-wrong-double-standards/6/) — Tom says Amy is "always" late; she was late once this month and Tom four times. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/165-the-brother-who-never-does-anything-wrong-double-standards/7/) — Count first, then speak: "You were late today" is fair and true. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/165-the-brother-who-never-does-anything-wrong-double-standards/8/) — The mockery aims at the unfairness, not the person: "Oh, the invisible sheet. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/165-the-brother-who-never-does-anything-wrong-double-standards/9/) — The famous invisible sheet." A fair rule is one that would still sound fair if you swapped the names. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/165-the-brother-who-never-does-anything-wrong-double-standards/10/) — A double standard means judging the same act or result differently depending on who did it. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/165-the-brother-who-never-does-anything-wrong-double-standards/11/) — Special pleading means making an exception to a rule for yourself or a favourite without a real reason. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/165-the-brother-who-never-does-anything-wrong-double-standards/12/) — The swap test: if a rule or judgement stops sounding fair when you swap the names, it is a double standard. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/165-the-brother-who-never-does-anything-wrong-double-standards/13/) — Inventing a new excuse whenever the evidence goes against your belief is called moving the goalposts. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/165-the-brother-who-never-does-anything-wrong-double-standards/14/) — Calling every example that breaks your rule "an exception" is a trap; grown-ups call it "no true Scotsman". - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/165-the-brother-who-never-does-anything-wrong-double-standards/15/) — "Always" and "never" are almost never true about people; count the times before using them. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/165-the-brother-who-never-does-anything-wrong-double-standards/16/) — Age can be a fair reason to be gentle, but then it must be fair for every child at that age. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/165-the-brother-who-never-does-anything-wrong-double-standards/17/) — If a rule has a good reason, like talking together at dinner, it applies to everyone; a real exception, like an emergency, should be said in advance for everyone. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/165-the-brother-who-never-does-anything-wrong-double-standards/18/) — Sugar is fine in small amounts and too much harms teeth and bodies at any age. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/165-the-brother-who-never-does-anything-wrong-double-standards/19/) — Screens can be fine or too much for anyone of any age; what matters is how long and what you watch. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/165-the-brother-who-never-does-anything-wrong-double-standards/20/) — Same mark, same praise: effort can be talked about separately and honestly. - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/165-the-brother-who-never-does-anything-wrong-double-standards/21/) — Words people use: "make it make sense" means this makes no sense (young slang), "sit down" means you're in no position to judge, "doughnut man" is a jokey nickname, "The Chase" is a TV quiz show in Britain, "wanna" means want to, and "bossy" here is a joke about gum giving orders. - ← previous: ["It worked once": one example is not all](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/164-it-worked-once-one-example-is-not-all/) - next →: ["Everyone has one!": the crowd is not a reason](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/166-everyone-has-one-the-crowd-is-not-a-reason/) - ↑ back to [World](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/)