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# tend

«tend» in Mova's school dictionary: **To usually do something or often be a certain way: "I…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

verb (tend, tends, tended, tending)

### meaning for a pupil

1) To usually do something or often be a certain way: "I tend to get tired in the afternoon." [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tend/#m1)

2) To look after someone or something: "tend the garden", "tend a wound". [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tend/#m2)

### sense in the lessons

In everyday life "tend to" shows a habit or what is usual. In science and maths, "tends to" describes a pattern in data: "Taller children tend to have longer feet." In stories, nurses tend the sick and shepherds tend their sheep. Phrases: tend to, tend the garden, tend to the wounded.

### examples

- I tend to wake up early. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tend/#x1)
- Cats tend to sleep a lot. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tend/#x2)
- Grandad tends his vegetable garden every day. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tend/#x3)
- The nurse tended the cut on my knee. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tend/#x4)
- Plants tend to grow towards the light. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tend/#x5)
- The shepherd tended his sheep on the hill. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tend/#x6)
- I tend them carefully; I never miss one. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tend/#x7)

### note

Regular verb: tend, tended. "Tend to" + verb means usually: "It tends to rain in April." A "tendency" is a habit or pattern. In maths and science, "tend to" means usually, not always; there can be exceptions.

### In the corpora

- [Everyone makes mistakes; owning up quickly makes them easier to fix, while hiding them tends to make them bigger.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/40-being-a-good-grown-up/16/)
- [Bots tend to repeat the most common jokes, because those appeared most often in their training text.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/ai/4-stories-jokes-and-riddles/6/)
- [Bots tend to flatter; praise from a bot that has not seen your work tells you nothing.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/ai/5-hallucinations-confident-made-up-answers/10/)
- [Families where telling the truth is safe tend to have fewer lies.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/455-trusting-again/39/)
- [Children who regularly sleep well tend to catch fewer infections, though sleep doesn't cure everything.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/31-why-we-sleep-when-ill/6/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «tend» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tend/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.