half

«half» in Mova's school dictionary: one of two equal parts of something — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (half, halves); adjective; adverb

meaning for a pupil

1) A half is one of two equal parts of something. tree →

2) Half as an adjective means one of two equal parts: «half an hour». tree →

3) Half can mean partly: «half asleep». tree →

4) Half past means 30 minutes after the hour. tree →

sense in the lessons

one of two equal parts of a count; half an hour is 30 minutes; «half past 3» is 3:30; phrases: «half of», «half as many as», «in half», «half past», «half an hour», «half-time»

examples

• Max gives Sam half of his stickers. tree →
• Ben has half as many cookies as Lily. tree →
• Mia ate half of the 8 grapes. tree →
• Cut the apple in half. tree →
• Half an hour is 30 minutes. tree →
• School ends at half past three. tree →
• The score was 2–1 at half-time. tree →
• The glass is half full. tree →
• There was only half of him! tree →

note

Plural: halves. «half of N» and «half as many as N» are N ÷ 2. Trap: «gives half» leaves the other half, also N ÷ 2, with the giver. Two halves make a whole. Halves must be equal, so a big piece and a small piece are not halves.

In the corpora

• A baby who shares only one parent with you is your half-brother or half-sister.
• Listening at the door usually gives you only scary half-pieces; asking «Is everything OK?» later works much better.
• Even grown-ups often can't spot a fake picture by looking; in Maddie's class half got it wrong.
• Dolphins sleep with half of their brain at a time, switching sides, so they can keep coming up to breathe.
• Octopuses can solve puzzles, open jars, learn by watching and remember people; wild ones carry coconut shell halves to hide in.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «half» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.