whisper

«whisper» in Mova's school dictionary: to speak very quietly, using your breath and not your voice — 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

verb (whisper, whispers, whispered, whispering); noun (a whisper, whispers)

meaning for a pupil

1) To whisper means to speak very quietly, using your breath and not your voice. tree →

2) A whisper is a very quiet way of speaking, or something said very quietly. tree →

3) A whisper can also be a soft sound, like leaves rustling, or a rumour. tree →

sense in the lessons

In school, children whisper in the library or during quiet time; whispering in class while the teacher talks is rude. In manners, whispering about someone in front of them can hurt their feelings. In games, «Chinese whispers» or «telephone» shows how messages change when passed on. In stories, characters whisper secrets. Phrases: in a whisper, whisper to, whisper in someone's ear, stage whisper.

examples

• She whispered the answer to me. tree →
• Please whisper in the library. tree →
• He said it in a whisper so the baby wouldn't wake. tree →
• It's unkind to whisper about people in front of them. tree →
• I heard the whisper of the wind in the trees. tree →
• We played a whispering game in a circle. tree →
• «Look behind you!» she whispered. tree →
• Don't whisper in class while the teacher is talking. tree →
• “Who are they?” Wendy whispered, shuddering. tree →

note

Regular verb: whispered, whispering. Whisper is quieter than «mutter» and «murmur». If someone whispers a secret that makes you uncomfortable or unsafe, you can tell a trusted adult.

In the corpora

• Grown-ups keep friends' secrets too, so whispering on the phone is often about someone else's private problem.
• She whispers to her mum that the girls watched a scary film and she lay awake till three, listening to every creak.
• Alice whispers "C and D" for cats and dogs, so as not to upset the Mouse.
• The Rat whispers: «Here, in this holy place, here if anywhere, surely we shall find Him!»
• The Rat whispers that Badger is always gloomy when he is hungry.

Trees and pragmatics

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