lovely

«lovely» in Mova's school dictionary: Very nice, pleasant or beautiful — 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

adjective (lovely, lovelier, loveliest)

meaning for a pupil

1) Very nice, pleasant or beautiful. tree →

2) Kind and friendly: «she's a lovely person». tree →

3) (UK, informal) Used to say thank you or «great»: «Lovely, thanks!». tree →

sense in the lessons

In everyday life, people say «lovely» to praise food, weather, places and people; very common in the UK, Ireland, Australia and NZ. In stories it describes beautiful things. Manners: «That's lovely, thank you» is a polite reply. Phrases: «lovely to see you», «a lovely day», «lovely and warm».

examples

• What a lovely day for a picnic! tree →
• Thank you for the lovely present. tree →
• Our new neighbour is a lovely lady. tree →
• The bath was lovely and warm. tree →
• «Here's your tea.» «Lovely, thanks!» tree →
• It was lovely to see Grandma again. tree →
• The garden looks lovely in spring. tree →
• Mignon grew more lovely every day. tree →

note

It ends in «-ly» but it is an adjective, not an adverb: «a lovely song». You cannot say «she sings lovely»; say «she sings beautifully». Comparatives: lovelier, loveliest.

In the corpora

• And sometimes the gossip is lovely, like a big kind tip for a waitress.
• A "new friend" who seems lovely and asks for photos is showing a big warning sign, whoever or whatever is typing.
• Slang: «lush» (Wales) means lovely; «mid» means average.
• A campfire is lovely but it is real fire.
• On the walk home Chloe's friend Bella is lovely: shares her sweets, asks about Chloe's nan.

Trees and pragmatics

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