twins

«twins» in Mova's school dictionary: two children born to the same mother at the same birth — 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, plural (twins; singular: a twin); adjective (twin beds, twin towns)

meaning for a pupil

1) Twins are two children born to the same mother at the same birth. tree →

2) Identical twins come from one egg that splits, so they look almost the same; non-identical (fraternal) twins come from two eggs and may be a boy and a girl. tree →

3) Twin (adjective) means one of a matching pair: «twin beds», «twin towers». tree →

4) Twin towns or sister cities are towns in different countries that are friends and visit each other. tree →

sense in the lessons

In science lessons, twins help explain inheritance: identical twins have the same genes, but they still have different fingerprints and personalities. In maths, twins have the same age, and «twin primes» are primes that differ by 2 (like 11 and 13). In stories twins are often swapped or mistaken for each other. Phrases: «identical twins», «twin brother», «twin sister».

examples

• Sam and Lily are twins. tree →
• My twin brother was born ten minutes before me. tree →
• Identical twins can be hard to tell apart. tree →
• The twins have different fingerprints. tree →
• We stayed in a room with twin beds. tree →
• Our town is twinned with a town in France. tree →
• Twins have the same birthday. tree →
• “And we are your children,” cried the twins. tree →

note

Singular: a twin («she is a twin», «my twin»). Three babies: triplets; four: quadruplets. Myth: identical twins are exactly the same person — they are two separate people with their own minds. Maths: if twins are 9, together their ages add to 18.

In the corpora

• Twins are two babies from one pregnancy; identical twins come from one egg that split, so they look alike.
• Tamarins and marmosets usually have twins, and the father and older brothers and sisters carry the babies most of the time.
• Ueno Zoo in Tokyo opened in 1882 and is Japan's oldest zoo; giant panda twins born there in 2021 drew huge crowds.
• Twins Mia and Maya in Toronto swapped hoodies to confuse the teacher.
• «Watch the twins while I nip to the shop,» says Mum.

Trees and pragmatics

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