fault
part of speech
noun (a fault, faults); verb (fault, faults, faulted, faulting)
meaning for a pupil
1) If something is your fault, you are the one who caused a mistake or a bad thing. tree →
2) A fault is a weak or bad part in someone's character: «His only fault is that he is late». tree →
3) A fault is something wrong in a machine: «an electrical fault». tree →
4) In science, a fault is a crack in the Earth's crust where rocks move. tree →
5) In tennis, a fault is a bad serve. tree →
sense in the lessons
In everyday life, saying «it was my fault» and saying sorry is honest; blaming others for your fault is unfair. In safety, an electrical fault can cause fires, so tell an adult if a plug sparks. In geography, earthquakes happen along faults, like the San Andreas Fault in California. Phrases: «my fault», «not your fault», «find fault with» (complain about), «at fault» (responsible).
examples
- It's not your fault that it rained. tree →
- Sorry, it was my fault — I broke the vase. tree →
- The machine stopped because of a fault. tree →
- Everyone has faults. tree →
- Earthquakes happen along faults in the ground. tree →
- She always finds fault with my drawings. tree →
- The driver who crashed was at fault. tree →
- If an adult hurts you, it is never your fault. tree →
note
Countable. «Faulty» means not working properly. Note the silent-ish «l»: say «fawlt». Do not confuse «fault» with «false».
In the corpora
- These things are worrying, but they are almost never anyone's fault at home, and most families get through them.
- A miscarriage is when a baby stops growing and dies early in pregnancy; it happens quite often and is nobody's fault.
- When a grown-up drinks too much, it is never the child's fault and never the child's job to fix.
- Seeing part of an 18 film by accident is common and is not the child's fault.
- Good parents make clear that an accident is not the child's fault.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «fault» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.