mistake
part of speech
noun (a mistake, mistakes); verb (mistake, mistakes, mistook, mistaken, mistaking)
meaning for a pupil
1) Something that is wrong, like a wrong answer or a wrong action. tree →
2) Something done that you later wish you had not done. tree →
3) Verb: to think one person or thing is another: «I mistook him for his brother». tree →
4) By mistake: without meaning to. tree →
sense in the lessons
In school: everyone makes mistakes; mistakes help us learn; check your work for mistakes; correct mistakes in spelling and maths. In feelings: saying sorry and fixing a mistake is brave. In stories a mistake often starts the problem. Phrases: make a mistake, by mistake, a big mistake, spelling mistake, learn from mistakes, mistake for, there's no mistake.
examples
- The Seven Heavens and the Seven Earths are printed with errors, and I believe intentional mistakes, in many occult ancient books. (Sefer Yetzirah, Westcott 1893) tree →
- Again, I have to add that I have not only endeavored to correct a great many mistakes and erroneous ideas of my predecessors, but I have also endeavored to give more complete annotations. (Sefer Yetzirah, Kalisch 1877) tree →
- The author of the Sefer Yetzirah apparently cautioned against the very errors and mistakes into which all writers on Hebrew grammar have fallen. (Mordell, The Origin of Letters and Numerals according to Sefer Yetzirah (1914)) tree →
- I made a mistake in my sum. tree →
- Check your work for spelling mistakes. tree →
- Everyone makes mistakes. tree →
- I took your pencil by mistake. tree →
- We learn from our mistakes. tree →
- She mistook the salt for sugar. tree →
- Opening the door to a stranger would be a mistake. tree →
- It's okay — it was a mistake, not on purpose. tree →
- ‘Oh, your majesty, it was a mistake! tree →
note
Countable: mistakes. We «make» a mistake, not «do» a mistake. Verb is irregular: mistook, mistaken. «Mistaken» also means «wrong»: «You are mistaken». In maths, finding where a mistake happened matters as much as the answer.
In the corpora
- Pocket money is a small regular amount given to children to practise choosing, saving and making mistakes with money.
- A bank statement lists everything that went in and out of an account, and grown-ups check it for mistakes and fraud.
- Everyone makes mistakes; owning up quickly makes them easier to fix, while hiding them tends to make them bigger.
- Tense music, close-ups and slow motion make ordinary mistakes feel dangerous; turn the sound down and the drama shrinks.
- Long extra explanations can hide mistakes, even when the main answer is right.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «mistake» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.