pen

«pen» in Mova's school dictionary: a tool for writing or drawing with ink — 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 (pen, pens); verb (pen, pens, penned, penning)

meaning for a pupil

1) A pen is a tool for writing or drawing with ink. tree →

2) A pen is also a small fenced place for animals, like a sheep pen or pig pen. tree →

3) To pen is to write: «she penned a letter». tree →

4) To pen in animals is to shut them in a pen. tree →

sense in the lessons

In maths: a thing counted or bought; price per pen; also an animal pen (count the animals inside; fence around it is a perimeter). In school: «write in pen, not pencil». In farming: sheep pens, pig pens. In stories: a pen pal is a friend you write letters to.

examples

• She has 8 pens. tree →
• Each pen costs 2 dollars. tree →
• The pigs are in a pen. tree →
• The pen has 4 sheep in it. tree →
• Please write your name in blue pen. tree →
• My pen ran out of ink. tree →
• The farmer built a pen for the lambs. tree →
• I have a pen pal in New Zealand. tree →
• She penned a short poem. tree →

note

A thing counted. Price per pen is a rate. Trap: a «pen» for animals is a place; count the animals inside. The fence around a pen is its perimeter. «Pen» and «pencil» are different: ink cannot be rubbed out.

In the corpora

• Sheepdog trials are real competitions where dog and shepherd move sheep through gates and into a pen.
• Fish come from the wild sea or from fish farms, like the round floating net pens in Scottish lochs.
• Many schools use a special pen colour, often purple or green, for edits, so the teacher can see the improvements.
• People with a serious sting allergy may carry an adrenaline pen, such as an EpiPen, given into the outer thigh.
• Do not climb into pens or fields with animals unless the farmer says you may.

Trees and pragmatics

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