ugly
part of speech
adjective (ugly, uglier, ugliest)
meaning for a pupil
1) Ugly means not nice to look at. tree →
2) Ugly can describe something nasty, unpleasant or violent, like an ugly fight or an ugly mood. tree →
3) Ugly can describe something that looks dangerous, like an ugly cut or ugly storm clouds. tree →
sense in the lessons
In stories, «The Ugly Duckling» teaches that looks can change and do not show who someone really is. In kindness and anti-bullying lessons, calling someone ugly is hurtful and unkind. In everyday life, «things turned ugly» means a situation became nasty. Phrases: «turn ugly», «ugly duckling», «ugly mood», «an ugly cut».
examples
- The ugly duckling grew into a beautiful swan. tree →
- That old building is really ugly. tree →
- Calling people ugly is unkind. tree →
- The argument turned ugly. tree →
- He had an ugly cut on his knee. tree →
- The sky looked ugly before the storm. tree →
- The troll was the ugliest creature in the forest. tree →
- She wore an ugly jumper for fun. tree →
- "What an ugly creature he is!" tree →
note
Comparative: uglier, ugliest (y changes to i). Ugly is a strong word; to be kinder people say «not very nice-looking». In stories, an ugly character is not always bad: the lesson is not to judge by looks.
In the corpora
- The book also calls her «very ugly»: judging people by their looks is an old habit we do not admire today.
- "A face for radio" is a joking, unkind way to say someone is ugly.
- Envy can make you say mean things you do not really believe, like calling something ugly because you want it.
- Kai called his friend's new trainers ugly because he secretly wanted them, and his friend, sad, stopped wearing them.
- Real fights are messy and ugly, not like on TV.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «ugly» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.