avoid
part of speech
verb (avoid, avoids, avoided, avoiding); adjective avoidable
meaning for a pupil
1) To avoid something means to keep away from it. tree →
2) To avoid doing something means to try not to do it or to stop it happening. tree →
3) To avoid a person means to stay away from them on purpose. tree →
sense in the lessons
In safety lessons «avoid» is a key word: avoid deep water, avoid touching hot pans, avoid strangers' cars, avoid sharing passwords. In health lessons: avoid too much sugar, avoid foods you are allergic to. In maths and writing: check your work to avoid mistakes. Phrases: avoid danger, avoid mistakes, avoid doing, avoid eye contact.
examples
- Avoid swimming where there are no lifeguards. tree →
- Wash your hands to avoid getting sick. tree →
- Check your answers to avoid silly mistakes. tree →
- She avoided me all day because she was upset. tree →
- People with a nut allergy must avoid nuts. tree →
- We took a different road to avoid the traffic. tree →
- Avoid looking straight at the Sun. tree →
- He tried to avoid the puddles on the way to school. tree →
note
After «avoid» use the -ing form: «avoid getting wet», not «avoid to get wet». Regular verb: avoided. Avoiding people forever usually does not solve a problem with them; talking to a trusted adult helps.
In the corpora
- A pill box with the days of the week helps someone see whether today's tablets have been taken and avoid a double dose.
- On matters of taste, like cats versus dogs, there is no single right answer, so bots usually avoid taking sides.
- Singing with a sore throat can strain the voice and make it worse; singers rest, drink water and avoid shouting.
- Dancers avoid getting dizzy when spinning by spotting: fixing their eyes on one point and whipping the head round to find it again.
- Hard deer hooves grip soil and snow but slip on smooth ice, so real deer avoid frozen ponds where they can.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «avoid» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.