better
part of speech
adjective (good, better, best); adverb (well, better, best); verb (better, betters, bettered — to improve); noun (your betters)
meaning for a pupil
1) Better means more good. A score of 9 is better than a score of 7. tree →
2) Better as an adverb means in a more good way: she sings better now. tree →
3) Better means less ill: I feel better today. tree →
4) «Had better» means should: you had better hurry. tree →
sense in the lessons
In maths: a comparison of two results; asks which is more (or less, for price or time); «better buy» compares the price per one item. In school: doing better, getting better with practice. In health: get better soon. Phrases: better than, get better, feel better, had better, better off, all the better, so much the better.
examples
- Which is the better buy: 3 for $1 or 5 for $2? tree →
- Her score was 8 points better. tree →
- He did better on the second test. tree →
- Is it better to walk or take the bus? tree →
- I was sick yesterday, but I feel better now. tree →
- You had better take a coat; it is cold. tree →
- Her reading gets better every week. tree →
- Get well soon and feel better! tree →
- Can't you think of something better?" tree →
note
Comparative of «good» and «well»: good, better, best. Never «more better» or «gooder». A comparison: find the difference or compare per one item. Trap: a better price is a lower one, a better time in a race is a shorter one.
In the corpora
- Morning sickness usually gets better after about three or four months, and it is not catching.
- Not every illness needs medicine: a cold gets better on its own.
- Parking rows are common, and knocking politely usually works better than an angry note.
- Listening at the door usually gives you only scary half-pieces; asking «Is everything OK?» later works much better.
- They are just better, most of the time, at keeping them in.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «better» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.