--- title: Sounds right, but is wrong — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Sounds right, but is wrong», a lesson of the world course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: These answers jump out at you, sound perfect, and are wrong. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/183-sounds-right-but-is-wrong/) [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/) / Sounds right, but is wrong # Sounds right, but is wrong Lesson 183 of the world course of Mova's primary school: 20 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/183-sounds-right-but-is-wrong/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/183-sounds-right-but-is-wrong/0/) — These answers jump out at you, sound perfect, and are wrong. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/183-sounds-right-but-is-wrong/1/) — A bat and a ball cost £1.10 and the bat costs £1 more: "The ball is 10p!" says everyone. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/183-sounds-right-but-is-wrong/2/) — Check it: a £1.10 bat plus a 10p ball is £1.20. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/183-sounds-right-but-is-wrong/3/) — The ball is 5p and the bat £1.05. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/183-sounds-right-but-is-wrong/4/) — The habit that saves you takes ten seconds: put your answer back into the story and see whether it fits. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/183-sounds-right-but-is-wrong/5/) — Many traps come from thinking in straight lines: things that double don't grow evenly (lily pads), handshakes grow faster than the number of kids, and a price that goes up by half and then down by half doesn't come back. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/183-sounds-right-but-is-wrong/6/) — Others hide a fence-post (6 strikes of a clock have only 5 gaps between them) or a whole hiding inside a part (a brick that weighs 1 kg and half a brick weighs 2 kg, not 1 and a half). - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/183-sounds-right-but-is-wrong/7/) — Freddie's sister: "Check it, bro. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/183-sounds-right-but-is-wrong/8/) — Your answer's 10p too expensive." Laugh at the answer, check it, try again. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/183-sounds-right-but-is-wrong/9/) — If a bat and a ball cost £1.10 together and the bat costs £1 more than the ball, the ball costs 5p and the bat £1.05. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/183-sounds-right-but-is-wrong/10/) — Lily pads that double every day and fill the pond on day 48 covered half of it on day 47. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/183-sounds-right-but-is-wrong/11/) — If 5 children make 5 paper planes in 5 minutes, each child makes one plane in 5 minutes, so 100 children make 100 planes in 5 minutes. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/183-sounds-right-but-is-wrong/12/) — A clock striking 6 times has 5 gaps between the strikes; if that takes 5 seconds, each gap is 1 second, so 12 strikes (11 gaps) take 11 seconds. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/183-sounds-right-but-is-wrong/15/) — Balls of a similar shape fall at almost the same speed whatever their weight; air only slows light, fluffy things like feathers a lot. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/183-sounds-right-but-is-wrong/16/) — On the Moon, where there is no air, an astronaut dropped a hammer and a feather in 1971 and they landed at the same moment. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/183-sounds-right-but-is-wrong/17/) — Galileo studied falling things about 400 years ago and showed that weight matters far less than people thought. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/183-sounds-right-but-is-wrong/18/) — A 1-in-6 chance of a six is a chance on each roll, not a promise: you can roll 6 times and get no six at all, and that happens about 1 time in 3. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/183-sounds-right-but-is-wrong/19/) — The gap between two people's ages stays the same: when a 5-year-old reaches 10, his brother who is 5 years older is 15. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/183-sounds-right-but-is-wrong/20/) — With 8 children each shaking hands once with every other child, each shakes 7 hands, and 8 × 7 = 56 counts every handshake twice, so there are 28; with 4 children there are 6. - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/183-sounds-right-but-is-wrong/21/) — Words people use: "fam" (London, young people) means mates; "can or not?" (Singapore) means "is it possible?"; "lah" (Singapore) is added to make a sentence sound friendly; "mate" means friend. - ← previous: [Sounds wrong, but is right](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/182-sounds-wrong-but-is-right/) - next →: ["If... then..." and its traps](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/184-if-then-and-its-traps/) - ↑ back to [World](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/)