false
part of speech
adjective (false)
meaning for a pupil
1) False means not true or not correct. tree →
2) False means not real; made to look like something else, like false teeth. tree →
3) False means not honest or not loyal, like a false friend. tree →
sense in the lessons
In school, true-or-false questions ask you to decide if a statement is right; in maths, «3 + 4 = 8» is false. In science, testing ideas shows which ones are false. In everyday life and online safety, false information and false rumours spread easily; check facts with trusted sources. «A false alarm» means an alarm that rang when there was no danger — but always leave the building when a fire alarm rings. In stories, false friends pretend to like you.
examples
- True or false: the Sun is a star? (True.) tree →
- «10 is an odd number» is false. tree →
- Don't spread false rumours. tree →
- Grandpa has false teeth. tree →
- It was a false alarm; there was no fire. tree →
- The thief gave a false name. tree →
- Always treat a fire alarm as real, even if it might be false. tree →
- A false tale often betrays itself. tree →
note
Not compared with -er (say «more false» rarely). Opposite «true». «Falsely» = in a false way. «False friends» also means words in two languages that look alike but mean different things. In logic and maths, every statement is either true or false.
In the corpora
- Corrections are usually much smaller than the false stories they correct, so be slow to believe a shocking first story.
- Surprising does not mean false, and it does not mean true either: it means check.
- Surprising facts deserve a quick check, whether they turn out true or false.
- An amoeba moves by flowing its inside forward into a bulge called a false foot, and it swallows food by flowing around it.
- Calling something a lie does not prove it is false; you need evidence.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «false» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.