deserve
part of speech
verb (deserve, deserves, deserved, deserving)
meaning for a pupil
1) If you deserve something, you should get it because of what you have done or what you are like. tree →
2) It can be used for good things (a reward) or bad things (a punishment). tree →
sense in the lessons
In everyday life and fairness «deserve» is about what is fair: «You worked hard, you deserve a break.» Everyone deserves respect and kindness, whatever they look like. In stories, characters get what they deserve: the greedy villain is caught, the kind hero is rewarded. In sport, «they deserved to win» means they played better.
examples
- You've tidied your room, so you deserve a treat. tree →
- She deserved the prize for her amazing painting. tree →
- Everyone deserves to be treated kindly. tree →
- The team played well and deserved to win. tree →
- Nobody deserves to be bullied. tree →
- What did I do to deserve this? tree →
- After a long walk, we deserved a rest. tree →
- And I deserve it, as usual! tree →
note
Regular verb: deserved, deserving. Followed by a noun (deserve a medal) or «to» + verb (deserve to win). Not used in «-ing» continuous form usually (say «you deserve», not «you are deserving it»). «Deserving» as adjective = worthy. Do not confuse with «desert» (a dry land) or «dessert» (pudding).
In the corpora
- Young famous people, like teenage TV actors, deserve even more privacy, because they are still children.
- Child YouTubers are still children; their money and homes are private and they deserve protection.
- Surprising facts deserve a quick check, whether they turn out true or false.
- Everyone deserves control over their own face and voice.
- People help build AI, and they deserve fairness.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «deserve» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.