turn

«turn» in Mova's school dictionary: to move around a centre: the wheel turns — 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, verb (turn, turns, turned, turning)

meaning for a pupil

1) To turn means to move around a centre: the wheel turns. tree →

2) To turn means to change direction: turn left. tree →

3) A turn is your chance to do something in a game or in order: it's your turn. tree →

4) To turn means to become: the leaves turn red; she turned 9 (became 9 years old). tree →

5) To turn a page is to move it to see the next one. tree →

6) A turn is a movement around: a quarter turn, a half turn, a full turn. tree →

7) To turn something on means to switch it on, like a light or a machine. tree →

sense in the lessons

Maths: turns in a game, turning pages, turns of a wheel; angles: a quarter turn is 90 degrees, a half turn 180, a full turn 360; clockwise and anticlockwise; «turned 9» gives an age. Everyday: take turns, turn on/off the light, turn up (arrive), turn down (say no or make quieter). Safety: wait your turn, turn off the tap.

examples

• Each player has 3 turns. tree →
• She turned 20 pages. tree →
• The wheel makes 10 turns a minute. tree →
• Tom turned 9 last week. tree →
• A quarter turn is a right angle. tree →
• Take turns on the swing. tree →
• Turn left at the corner. tree →
• Please turn off the lights when you leave. tree →
• In autumn the leaves turn orange. tree →
• "Let's turn it on," she said. tree →

note

Countable noun; regular verb. Turns are counted; «turned 9» gives an age. A full turn is 360 degrees. «It is her turn» carries no number. Trap: «turn» (rotate) and «tern» (a sea bird) sound the same.

In the corpora

• Being turned down is normal for everyone, and being picked is the reward for trying again and again.
• A subscription keeps taking money every month until it is cancelled, and free trials often turn into payments.
• Laundry means sorting colours, reading labels and choosing the right temperature; a red sock in a white wash turns everything pink.
• Comments about how someone's face or body looks turn into accusations; «you look well» is enough.
• Ghost stories and playground legends are fun, but they should not turn a real neighbour into a villain.

Trees and pragmatics

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