behind
part of speech
preposition, adverb
meaning for a pupil
1) Behind means at the back of something: «behind the tree». tree →
2) Behind means after someone in a line or a race. tree →
3) Behind can mean late or slower than others: «behind with homework». tree →
4) Behind can mean left in a place: «I left my bag behind». tree →
sense in the lessons
after someone in a line: in a line of N, the Kth from the front has N − K people behind; in a race, a runner behind is losing; phrases: «behind you», «left behind», «fall behind», «behind the scenes»
examples
- How many people are behind her? tree →
- Ben stands behind 5 children. tree →
- 7 runners are behind Zoe. tree →
- The cat is hiding behind the sofa. tree →
- Our team was 2 goals behind at half-time. tree →
- I left my coat behind at school. tree →
- Don't fall behind with your reading. tree →
- The sun went behind a cloud. tree →
- The Fiddler hid behind the stove-pipe. tree →
note
In a line of N, the Kth from the front has N − K people behind. Trap: «behind 5 children» makes Ben the 6th. «behind» is the opposite of «in front of».
In the corpora
- On a motorway, after a breakdown everyone gets out and waits behind the barrier, away from the traffic.
- Behind a funny line about someone there may be a sad story, like old pets that died.
- And behind every story is a real person who may read it too.
- If you would not say it to their face, don't say it behind their back.
- Jungle and survival shows have doctors, crews and safety rules behind the camera, even when the people look all alone.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «behind» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.