mistake

«mistake» in Mova's school dictionary: wrong, like a wrong answer or a wrong action — 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 (a mistake, mistakes); verb (mistake, mistakes, mistook, mistaken, mistaking)

meaning for a pupil

1) Something that is wrong, like a wrong answer or a wrong action. tree →

2) Something done that you later wish you had not done. tree →

3) Verb: to think one person or thing is another: «I mistook him for his brother». tree →

4) By mistake: without meaning to. tree →

sense in the lessons

In school: everyone makes mistakes; mistakes help us learn; check your work for mistakes; correct mistakes in spelling and maths. In feelings: saying sorry and fixing a mistake is brave. In stories a mistake often starts the problem. Phrases: make a mistake, by mistake, a big mistake, spelling mistake, learn from mistakes, mistake for, there's no mistake.

examples

• I made a mistake in my sum. tree →
• Check your work for spelling mistakes. tree →
• Everyone makes mistakes. tree →
• I took your pencil by mistake. tree →
• We learn from our mistakes. tree →
• She mistook the salt for sugar. tree →
• Opening the door to a stranger would be a mistake. tree →
• It's okay — it was a mistake, not on purpose. tree →
• ‘Oh, your majesty, it was a mistake! tree →

note

Countable: mistakes. We «make» a mistake, not «do» a mistake. Verb is irregular: mistook, mistaken. «Mistaken» also means «wrong»: «You are mistaken». In maths, finding where a mistake happened matters as much as the answer.

In the corpora

• Pocket money is a small regular amount given to children to practise choosing, saving and making mistakes with money.
• A bank statement lists everything that went in and out of an account, and grown-ups check it for mistakes and fraud.
• Everyone makes mistakes; owning up quickly makes them easier to fix, while hiding them tends to make them bigger.
• Tense music, close-ups and slow motion make ordinary mistakes feel dangerous; turn the sound down and the drama shrinks.
• Long extra explanations can hide mistakes, even when the main answer is right.

Trees and pragmatics

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