careless
part of speech
adjective (careless, more careless, most careless)
meaning for a pupil
1) Careless means not paying enough attention, so you make mistakes or cause harm: a careless mistake. tree →
2) Careless means not caring or worrying about something: careless of danger. tree →
3) Careless can also mean relaxed and natural, without effort: careless happiness. tree →
sense in the lessons
In maths, «careless mistakes» are errors from rushing (copying a number wrong, forgetting to carry) — check your work. In safety lessons, careless behaviour near roads, fires or water leads to accidents. In stories, a careless character loses things or causes trouble. Phrases: «careless mistake», «careless with money», «careless driving».
examples
- I made a careless mistake and wrote 54 instead of 45. tree →
- Don't be careless with matches. tree →
- He was careless and left the gate open, so the dog ran out. tree →
- Careless driving can cause accidents. tree →
- She is careless with her things and loses her pencils. tree →
- Check your work to avoid careless errors. tree →
- A careless word can hurt a friend's feelings. tree →
- The careless camper left the fire burning. tree →
- 'Why, you have forgotten your axe again, you careless man! tree →
note
Adverb: carelessly; noun: carelessness. Opposite: careful. The ending -less means «without»: careless = without care. In maths tests, careless errors are fixed by estimating first and checking the answer at the end.
In the corpora
- Leaving about five minutes to check catches careless mistakes.
- Kitchen machines are helpful, but they hold heat, steam, gas and electricity that can hurt you if you are careless.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «careless» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.