Promises Lesson 199 of the everyday course of Mova's primary school: 27 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 .
1 Keeping promises, even small ones, is how people learn they can rely on you. 2 A pinky promise is still a promise. 3 So only promise what you really mean to do. 4 An empty «I promise I'll tidy later», said just to stop someone asking, teaches people your word means nothing. 5 Sometimes you cannot keep a promise, because you are ill or plans change. 6 Then tell the person as early as you can and say sorry. 7 If you simply forgot, own up and make it right quickly. 8 Some promises do not count: a promise forced by a threat, or one that controls who you can be friends with. 9 You do not have to make them, and a promise made under threat should be told to an adult. 10 Example: a girl in Colorado promised to look after a new puppy. 12 Only promise what you really mean to do. 13 A pinky promise is still a promise, and people remember broken ones. 14 Keeping small promises is how people learn they can rely on you. 15 If you cannot keep a promise, tell the person as early as you can and say sorry. 16 A promise to look after a pet means caring for it every day, because the animal depends on you. 17 A borrowed thing should be returned on time and in the same condition. 18 Grown-ups sometimes cannot keep promises because things change, and calmly talking about it helps. 19 A promise made under threat does not count, and you should tell an adult about it. 20 Dropping a promise for a better offer hurts the other person, so keep it or ask them honestly first. 22 Younger children take promises very seriously. 23 If you forget a promise, own up, say sorry and fix it as soon as you can. 24 You do not have to make a promise that controls who you can be friends with. 25 A boy in Ohio promised to keep his little brother safe at the playground and then went off with friends; his brother wandered to the road and a neighbour brought him back. 26 A girl in Leeds kept promising to return a friend's book and never did; the friend stopped lending her things. 27 Breaking a promise to keep someone safe can put them in danger. 28 People stop trusting someone who often breaks promises. 29 A promise to keep a secret does not count if someone is being hurt; tell a trusted adult. ← previous Telling when someone may be lyingnext → Playing fair and cheating in games↑ back to Everyday This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/199-promises/