The word girl in the past

and it gets even weirder….

The word ‘boy’ also didn’t used to mean ‘boy’ in the modern sense but ‘servant’. The word ‘boy’ meaning ‘young man’ probably derived from the way the ‘servant’ meaning was used as a pejorative term. It doesn’t occur before 1440 so before then if you wanted to talk about a boy you called them a ‘girl’.

The ‘pink for a girl, blue for a boy’ coding is actually the opposite of the system that prevailed until quite recently. Until the 20th century toddlers of either sex were normally dressed in white, but when colours were used, boys were dressed in pink. At the turn of the 20th century, Dressmaker Magazine wrote: ‘The preferred colour to dress young boys in is pink. Blue is reserved for girls as it is considered paler, and the more dainty of the two colours, and pink is thought to be stronger (akin to red).’ As late as 1927, Time magazine reported that Princess Astrid of Belgium had been caught out when she gave birth to a girl, because ‘The cradle…had been optimistically outfitted in pink, the colour for boys.’

Studies have shown that women asked to hold babies dressed arbitrarily in blue and pink show a marked tendency to hold the pink ones facing inwards towards them, and the blue ones facing outwards.

Источник

A girl is a young female human, usually a child or an adolescent. When a girl becomes an adult, she is accurately described as a woman. However, the term girl is also used for other meanings, including young woman,[1] and is sometimes used as a synonym for daughter,[2] or girlfriend.[citation needed] In certain contexts, the usage of girl for a woman may be derogatory. Girl may also be a term of endearment used by an adult, usually a woman, to designate adult female friends. Girl also appears in portmanteaus (compound words) like showgirl, cowgirl, and schoolgirl.

The treatment and status of girls in any society is usually closely related to the status of women in that culture. In cultures where women have a low societal position, girls may be unwanted by their parents, and the state may invest less in services for girls. Girls’ upbringing ranges from being relatively the same as that of boys to complete sex segregation and completely different gender roles.

Etymology

The English word girl first appeared during the Middle Ages between 1250 and 1300 CE and came from the Anglo-Saxon word gerle (also spelled girle or gurle).[3] The Anglo-Saxon word gerela meaning dress or clothing item also seems to have been used as a metonym in some sense.[1] Until the late 1400s, the word meant a child of either sex, and has meant ‘female child’ since about the late 1500s century.[4]

Usage for adult women

The word girl is sometimes used to refer to an adult female, usually a younger one. This usage may be considered derogatory or disrespectful in professional or other formal contexts, just as the term boy can be considered disparaging when applied to an adult man. Hence, this usage is often deprecative.[1] It can also be used depreciatively when used to discriminate against children (e.g., «you’re just a girl«). However, girl can also be a professional designation for a woman employed as a model or other public feminine representative such as a showgirl, and in such cases is not generally considered derogatory.

In a casual context, the word has positive uses, as evidenced by its use in titles of popular music. It has been used playfully for people acting in an energetic fashion (Canadian singer Nelly Furtado’s «Promiscuous Girl») or as a way of unifying women of all ages on the basis of their once having been girls (American country singer Martina McBride’s «This One’s for the Girls»).

History

The status of girls throughout world history is closely related to the status of women in any culture. Where women enjoy a more equal status with men, girls benefit from greater attention to their needs.

Girls’ education

Girls’ formal education has traditionally been considered far less important than that of boys. In Europe, exceptions were rare before the printing press and the Reformation made literacy more widespread. One notable exception to the general neglect of girls’ literacy is Queen Elizabeth I. In her case, as a child, she was in a precarious position as a possible heir to the throne, and her life was in fact endangered by the political scheming of other powerful members of the court. Following the execution of her mother, Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth was considered illegitimate. Her education was for the most part ignored by Henry VIII. Remarkably, Henry VIII’s widow, Catherine Parr, took an interest in the high intelligence of Elizabeth, and supported the decision to provide her with an impressive education after Henry’s death, starting when Elizabeth was 9.[5] Elizabeth received an education equal to that of a prominent male aristocrat; she was educated in Latin, Greek, Spanish, French, philosophy, history, mathematics and music. It has been argued that Elizabeth’s high-quality education helped her grow up to become a successful monarch.[6]

By the 18th century, Europeans recognized the value of literacy, and schools were opened to educate the public in growing numbers. Education in the Age of Enlightenment in France led to up to a third of women becoming literate by the time of the French Revolution, contrasting with roughly half of men by that time.[7] However, education was still not considered as important for girls as for boys, who were being trained for professions that remained closed to women, and girls were not admitted to secondary level schools in France until the late 19th century. Girls were not entitled to receive a Baccalaureate diploma in France until the reforms of 1924 under education minister Léon Bérard. Schools were segregated in France until the end of World War II. Since then, compulsory education laws have raised the education of girls and young women throughout Europe. In many European countries, girls’ education was restricted until the 1970s, especially at higher levels. This was often done by teaching different subjects to each sex, especially since tertiary education was considered primarily for males, particularly with regard to technical education. For example, prestigious engineering schools, such as École Polytechnique, did not allow women until the 1970s.[8]

«Coming of age» customs

Many cultures have traditional customs to mark the «coming of age» of a girl or boy, to recognize their transition to adulthood, or to mark other milestones of their journey to maturity as children.

Japan has a coming-of-age ritual called Shichi-Go-San (七五三), which literally means «Seven-Five-Three». This is a traditional rite of passage and festival day in Japan for three- and seven-year-old girls and three- and five-year-old boys, held annually on November 15. It is generally observed on the nearest weekend. On this day, the girl will be dressed in a traditional kimono, and will be taken to a temple by her family for a blessing ceremony. Nowadays, the occasion is also marked with a formal photo portrait.

Many coming-of-age ceremonies are to acknowledge the passing of a girl through puberty, when she experiences menarche, or her first menstruation. The traditional Apache coming-of-age ceremony for girls is called the na’ii’ees (Sunrise Ceremony), and takes place over four days. The girls are painted with clay and pollen, which they must not wash off until the end of the rituals, which involve dancing and rituals that challenge physical strength. Girls are given teaching in aspects of sexuality, confidence, and healing ability. The girls pray in the direction of the east at dawn, and in the four cardinal directions, which represent the four stages of life. This ceremony was banned by the U.S. government for many decades; after being decriminalized by the Indian Religious Freedom Act in 1978, it has seen a revival.
[9]

Some coming-of-age ceremonies are religious rituals to recognize a girl’s maturity with respect to her understanding of religious beliefs, and to recognize her changing role in her religious community. Confirmation is a ceremony common to many Christian denominations for both boys and girls, usually taking place when the child is in their teen years. In Roman Catholic communities, Confirmation ceremonies are considered one of seven sacraments that a Catholic may receive during their life. In many countries, it is traditional for Catholics children to undergo another sacrament, First Communion, at the age of 7 years old. The sacrament is usually performed in a church once a year, with children who are of age receive a blessing from a Bishop in a special ceremony. It is traditional in many countries for Catholic girls to wear white dresses and possibly a small veil or wreath of flowers in their hair to their First Communion. The white dress symbolizes spiritual purity.

A traditional coming-of-age ritual for daughters of college age (17 to 21 years old) from high society and well-connected upper-class and White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) families in North America and Europe has historically been their debut at a debutante ball, such as the International Debutante Ball in New York City. Traditionally, debutantes wear couture white gowns and gloves symbolising purity and wealth.

Across Latin America, the fiesta de quince años is a celebration of a girl’s fifteenth birthday. The girl celebrating the birthday is called a Quinceañera. This birthday is celebrated differently from any other birthday, as it marks the transition from childhood to young womanhood.[10]

  • 58th International Debutante Ball, 2012, New York City (Waldorf-Astoria Hotel)

  • Bat mitzvah in Israel

  • Quinceañera in Nicaragua

Preparing girls for marriage

Cooking class at a girls’ school in Jerusalem, c. 1936. Girls’ upbringing and education were traditionally focused on preparing them to be future wives.

In many ancient societies, girls’ upbringing had much to do with preparing them to be future wives. In many cultures, it was not the norm for women to be economically independent. Thus, where a girl’s future well-being depended upon marrying her to a man who was economically self-sufficient, it was crucial to prepare her to meet whatever qualities or skills were popularly expected of wives.

Western society

In cultures ranging from Ancient Greece to the 19th-century United States, girls have been taught such essential domestic skills as sewing, cooking, gardening, and basic hygiene and medical care such as preparing balms and salves, and in some cases midwife skills. These skills would be taught from generation to generation, with the knowledge passed down orally from mother to daughter. A well-known reference to these important women’s skills is in the folk tale Rumpelstiltskin, which dates back to Medieval Germany and was collected in written form by the folklorists the Brothers Grimm. The miller’s daughter is valued as a potential wife because of her reputation for being able to spin straw into gold.

China

In some parts of China, beginning in the Southern Tang kingdom in Nanjing (937-975),[11] the custom of foot binding was associated with upper-class women who were worthy of a life of leisure, and husbands who could afford to spare them the necessity of work (which would require the ability to be mobile and spend the day on their feet).[11] Because of this belief, parents hoping to ensure a good marriage for their daughters would begin binding their feet from about the age of 5–8 to achieve the ideal appearance.[11] The tinier the feet, the better the social rank of a future husband.[11] This practice did not end until the early years of the 20th century.[11]

China has had many customs tied to girls and their roles as future wives and mothers. According to one custom, a girl’s way of wearing her hair would indicate her marital status. An unmarried girl would wear her hair in two «pigtails», and once married, she would wear her hair in one.[12]

Africa

In some cultures, girls’ passing through puberty is viewed with concern for a girl’s chastity. In some communities, there is a traditional belief that female genital mutilation is a necessity to prevent a girl from becoming sexually promiscuous. The practice is dangerous, however, and leads to long-term health problems for women who have undergone it. The practice has been a custom in 28 countries of Africa, and persists mainly in rural areas. This coming-of-age custom, sometimes incorrectly described as «female circumcision», is being outlawed by governments, and challenged by human rights groups and other concerned community members, who are working to end the practice.

Trafficking and trading girls

The Pashtun population has a tradition of trading girls in solving disputes.

Girls have been used historically, and are still used in some parts of the world, in settlements of disputes between families, through practices such as baad, swara, or vani. In such situations, a girl from a criminal’s family is given to the victim’s family as a servant or a bride. Another practice is that of selling girls in exchange for the bride price. The 1956 Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery defines «institutions and practices similar to slavery» to include:[13] c) Any institution or practice whereby: (i) A woman, without the right to refuse, is promised or given in marriage on payment of a consideration in money or in kind to her parents, guardian, family or any other person or group; or (ii) The husband of a woman, his family, or his clan, has the right to transfer her to another person for value received or otherwise; or (iii) A woman on the death of her husband is liable to be inherited by another person.

Demographics

China has an imbalanced sex ratio, a situation partly caused by the one child policy. Photo shows girls in 1982 in China.

World map of birth sex ratios, 2012

2011 Census sex ratio map for the states and Union Territories of India, boys per 100 girls in 0 to 1 age group.[14]

Scholars are unclear and in dispute as to possible causes for variations in human sex ratios at birth.[15][16] Countries which have sex ratios of 108 and above are usually presumed as engaging in sex selection. However, deviations in sex ratios at birth can occur for natural causes too. Nevertheless, the practice of bias against girls, through sex selective abortion, female infanticide, female abandonment, as well as favouring sons with regard to allocating of family resources[17] is well documented in parts of South Asia, East Asia, and the Caucasus. Such practices are a major concern in China, India and Pakistan. In these cultures, the low status of women creates a bias against females.[18]

China and India have a very strong son preference. In China, the one child policy was largely responsible for an unbalanced sex ratio. Sex-selective abortion, as well as rejection of girl children is common. The Dying Rooms is a 1995 television documentary film about Chinese state orphanages, which documented how parents abandoned their newborn girls into orphanages, where the staff would leave the children in rooms to die of thirst, or starvation. In India, the practice of dowry is partly responsible for a strong son preference.
Another manifestation of son preference is the violence inflicted against mothers who give birth to girls.[19][20][21]

In India, by 2011, there were 91 girls younger than 6 for every 100 boys. Its 2011 census showed[22] that the ratio of girls to boys under the age of 6 years old has dropped even during the past decade, from 927 girls for every 1000 boys in 2001 to 918 girls for every 1000 boys in 2011. In China, scholars[23] report 794 baby girls for every 1000 baby boys in rural regions. In Azerbaijan, last 20 years of birth data suggests 862 girls were born for every 1000 boys, on average every year.[24] Steven Mosher, president of the Population Research Institute in Washington, D.C. has said: «Twenty-five million men in China currently can’t find brides because there is a shortage of women […] young men emigrate overseas to find brides.» The gender imbalance in these regions is also blamed for spurring growth in the commercial sex trade; the UN’s 2005 report states that up to 800,000 people being trafficked across borders each year, and as many as 80 percent are women and girls.[25]

Biology

A girl with a doll, a traditionally female toy. Photo by Hermann Kapps

A victor of the Heraean Games, represented near the start of a race. Various cultures throughout history have had different ideas of acceptable activities for girls.

Embryos that inherit two X chromosomes (XX), one from each parent, are generally identified as girls when born.

About one in a thousand girls have a 47,XXX karyotype, and one in 2500 have a 45,X one.

Girls have a female reproductive system. Some intersex children with ambiguous genitals, as well as transgender children may also be classified or self-identify as girls.[26][27][28][page needed][better source needed]

Girls’ bodies undergo gradual changes during puberty. Puberty is the process of physical changes by which a child’s body matures into an adult body capable of sexual reproduction to enable fertilization. It is initiated by hormonal signals from the brain to the gonads. In response to the signals, the gonads produce hormones that stimulate libido and the growth, function, and transformation of the brain, bones, muscle, blood, skin, hair, breasts, and sexual organs. Physical growth—height and weight—accelerates in the first half of puberty and is completed when the child has developed an adult body. Until the maturation of their reproductive capabilities, the pre-pubertal, physical differences between boys and girls are the genitalia. Puberty is a process that usually takes place between 10 and 16 years, but these ages differ from person to person. The major landmark of female puberty is menarche, the onset of menstruation, which occurs on average between 12 and 13.[29][30] According to a 2010 Canadian study, the variation of age in which menstruation begins had a «statistically significant» relation to where the child was living, household income, and family type.[31]

Gender and environment

Rows of pink girls’ toys in a Canadian store, 2011. Biological sex interacts with environment in ways not fully understood in creating gender roles.

Biological sex interacts with environment in ways not fully understood.[32] Identical twin girls separated at birth and reunited decades later have shown both startling similarities and differences.[33] In 2005, professor Kim Wallen of Emory University noted, «I think the ‘nature versus nurture’ question is not meaningful, because it treats them as independent factors, whereas in fact everything is nature and nurture.»[34] Wallen said gender differences emerge very early and come about through an underlying preference males and females have for their chosen activities.

Femininity is a set of attributes, behaviours, and roles generally associated with girls and women. Femininity is socially constructed, but made up of both socially-defined and biologically created factors.[35][36][37] This makes it distinct from the definition of the biological female sex,[38][39] as both males and females can exhibit feminine traits. Traits traditionally cited as feminine include gentleness, empathy, and sensitivity,[40][41][42] though traits associated with femininity vary depending on location and context, and are influenced by a variety of social and cultural factors.[43]

Gender neutrality describes the idea that policies, language, and other social institutions should avoid distinguishing roles according to people’s sex or gender, in order to avoid discrimination arising from rigid gender roles. Unisex refers to things that are considered appropriate for any sex. Campaigns for unisex toys include Let Toys Be Toys.

Teenage pregnancy

Teenage pregnancy is pregnancy in an adolescent girl. A female can become pregnant from sexual intercourse after she has begun to ovulate. Pregnant teenagers face many of the same pregnancy related issues as other women. There are, however, additional concerns for young adolescents as they are less likely to be physically developed enough to sustain a healthy pregnancy or to give birth.[44][45][46]

In developed countries, teenage pregnancy is usually associated with social issues, including lower educational levels, poverty, and other negative life outcomes; and often carries a social stigma.[47] By contrast, teenage girls in developing countries are often married, and their pregnancies welcomed by family and society. However, in these societies, child marriage and early pregnancy often combine with malnutrition and poor health care and create medical problems.

Girls’ education

Girls’ equal access to education has been achieved in some countries, but there are significant disparities in the majority. There are gaps in access between different regions and countries and even within countries. Girls account for 60 per cent of children out of school in Arab countries and 66 per cent of non-attendees in South and West Asia; however, more girls than boys attend schools in many countries in Latin America, the Caribbean, North America and Western Europe.[48] Research has measured the economic cost of this inequality to developing countries: Plan International’s analysis shows that a total of 65 low, middle income and transition countries fail to offer girls the same secondary school opportunities as boys, and in total, these countries are missing out on annual economic growth of an estimated $92 billion.[48]

Although the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has asserted «primary education shall be compulsory and available free to all» girls are slightly less likely to be enrolled as students in primary and secondary schools (70%:74% and 59%:65%). Worldwide efforts have been made to end this disparity (such as through the Millennium Development Goals) and the gap has closed since 1990.[49]

Educational environment and expectations

According to Kim Wallen, expectations will nonetheless play a role in how girls perform academically. For example, if females skilled in math are told a test is «gender neutral» they achieve high scores, but if they are told males outperformed females in the past, the females will do much worse. «What’s strange is,» Wallen observed, «according to the research, all one apparently has to do is tell a woman who has a lifetime of socialization of being poor in math that a math test is gender neutral, and all effects of that socialization go away.»[51] Author Judith Harris has said that aside from their genetic contribution, the nurturing provided by parents likely has less long-term influence over their offspring than other environmental aspects such as the children’s peer group.[52]

In England, studies by the National Literacy Trust have shown girls score consistently higher than boys in all scholastic areas from the ages of 7 through 16, with the most striking differences noted in reading and writing skills.[53] In the United States, historically, girls lagged on standardized tests. In 1996 the average score of 503 for US girls from all races on the SAT verbal test was 4 points lower than boys. In math, the average for girls was 492, which was 35 points lower than boys. «When girls take the exact same courses,» commented Wayne Camara, a research scientist with the College Board, «that 35-point gap dissipates quite a bit.» At the time Leslie R. Wolfe, president of the Center for Women Policy Studies said girls scored differently on the math tests because they tend to work the problems out while boys use «test-taking tricks» such as immediately checking the answers already given in multiple-choice questions. Wolfe said girls are steady and thorough while «boys play this test like a pin-ball machine.» Wolfe also said although girls had lower SAT scores they consistently get higher grades than boys across all courses in their first year in college.[54] By 2006 girls were outscoring boys on the verbal portion of the United States’ nationwide SAT exam by 11 points.[55] A 2005 University of Chicago study showed that a majority presence of girls in the classroom tends to enhance the academic performance of boys.[56][57]

Obstacles to girls’ access to education

In many parts of the world, girls face significant obstacles to accessing proper education. These obstacles include: early and forced marriages; early pregnancy; prejudice based on gender stereotypes at home, at school and in the community; violence on the way to school, or in and around schools; long distances to schools; vulnerability to the HIV epidemic; school fees, which often lead to parents sending only their sons to school; lack of gender sensitive approaches and materials in classrooms.[58][59][60]

Sex segregation

Further information: Purdah

Sex segregation is the physical, legal, and cultural separation of people according to their biological sex. It is practiced in many societies, especially starting when children attain puberty. In certain circumstances, sex segregation is controversial.[61] Some critics contend that it is a violation of capabilities and human rights and can create economic inefficiencies and discrimination, while some supporters argue that it is central to certain religious laws and social and cultural histories and traditions.[62][63] Purdah is a religious and social practice of female seclusion prevalent among some Muslim and Hindu communities in South Asia.[64] It takes two forms: physical segregation of the sexes and the requirement that women cover almost entirely their bodies. The ages from which this practice is enforced vary by community. Such practices are most common in cultures where the concept of family honor is very strong. In cultures where sex segregation is common, the predominant form of education in single sex education.

Violence against girls

Millions of girls, some less than 1 year old, undergo ritual female genital mutilation (FGM) every year. This practice is found in parts of Africa,[65] some Middle East countries such as Iraq and Yemen,[66][67] Malaysia and Indonesia.[68][69] A worldwide campaign is underway to prevent FGM/C and other violence against girls.

In many parts of the world, girls are at risk of specific forms of violence and abuse, such as sex-selective abortion, female genital mutilation, child marriage, child sexual abuse, honor killings.

In parts of the world, especially in East Asia, South Asia and some Western countries’ girls are sometimes seen as unwanted; in some cases, girls are selectively aborted, abused, mistreated or abandoned by their parents or relatives.[70][71] In China, boys exceed girls by more than 30 million, suggesting over a million excess boys are born every year than expected for normal human sex ratio at birth.[23] In India, scholars[72] estimate from boy to girl ratio at birth that sex-selective abortions cause a loss of about 1.5%, or 100,000 female births per year. Abnormal boy to girl ratio at birth is also seen in Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia, suggesting possible sex-selective abortions against girls.[73]

Female genital mutilation (FGM) is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as «all procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons.»[74] It is practiced mainly in 28 countries in western, eastern, and north-eastern Africa, particularly Egypt and Ethiopia, and in parts of Southeast Asia and the Middle East.[75] FGM is most often carried out on girls aged between infancy and 15 years.[76]

Child marriages, where girls are married at young ages (often forced and often to much older husbands) remain common in many parts of the world. They are fairly widespread in parts of the world, especially in Africa,[77][78] South Asia,[79] Southeast and East Asia,[80][81] the Middle East,[82][83] Latin America,[84] and Oceania.[85] The ten countries with the highest rates of child marriage are: Niger, Chad, Central African Republic, Bangladesh, Guinea, Mozambique, Mali, Burkina Faso, South Sudan, and Malawi.[86]

Child sexual abuse (CSA) is a form of child abuse in which an adult or older adolescent uses a child for sexual stimulation.[87][88] In Western countries CSA is considered a serious crime, but in many parts of the world there is a tacit tolerance of the practice. CSA can take many forms, one of which is child prostitution. Child prostitution is the commercial sexual exploitation of children in which a child performs the services of prostitution, for financial benefit. It is estimated that each year at least one million children, mostly girls, become prostitutes.[89] Child prostitution is common in many parts of the world, especially in Southeast Asia (Thailand, Cambodia), and many adults from wealthy countries travel to these regions to engage in child sex tourism.

In many parts of the world, girls who are deemed to have tarnished the ‘honor’ of their families by refusing arranged marriages, having premarital sex, dressing in ways deemed inappropriate or even becoming the victims of rape, are at risk of honor killing by their families.[90]

Health

Girls’ health suffers in cultures where girls are valued less than boys, and families allocate most resources to boys. A major threat to girls’ health is early marriage, which often leads to early pregnancy. Girls forced into child marriage often become pregnant quickly after marriage, increasing their risk of complications and maternal mortality. Such complications resulting from pregnancy and birth at young ages are a leading cause of death among teenage girls in developing countries.[91] Female genital mutilation (FGM) practiced in many parts of the world is another leading cause of ill health for girls.[92]

Girls and child labor

Gender influences the pattern of child labor. Girls tend to be asked by their families to perform more domestic work in their parental home than boys are, and often at younger ages than boys. Employment as a paid domestic worker is the most common form of child labor for girls. In some places, such as East and Southeast Asia, parents often see work as a domestic servant as a good preparation for marriage. Domestic service, however, is among the least regulated of all professions, and exposes workers to serious risks, such as violence, exploitation and abuse by the employers, because the workers are often isolated from the outside world. Child labor has a very negative effect on education. Girls either stop their education, or, when they continue it, they are often subjected to a double burden, or a triple burden of work outside the home, housework in the parental home, and schoolwork. This situation is common in places such as parts of Asia and Latin America.[93][94]

International initiatives for girls’ rights

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1988) and Millennium Development Goals (2000) promoted better access to education for all girls and boys and to eliminate gender disparities at both primary and secondary level. Worldwide school enrolment and literacy rates for girls have improved continuously. In 2005, global primary net enrolment rates were 85 per cent for girls, up from 78 per cent 15 years earlier; at the secondary level, girls’ enrolment increased 10 percentage points to 57 per cent over the same period.[48]

A number of international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have created programs focussing on addressing disparities in girls’ access to such necessities as food, healthcare and education. CAMFED is one organization active in providing education to girls in sub-Saharan Africa. PLAN International’s «Because I am a Girl» campaign is a high-profile example of such initiatives. PLAN’s research has shown that educating girls can have a powerful ripple effect, boosting the economies of their towns and villages; providing girls with access to education has also been demonstrated to improve community understanding of health matters, reducing HIV rates, improving nutritional awareness, reducing birthrates and improving infant health. Research demonstrates that a girl who has received an education will:

  • Earn up to 25 percent more and reinvest 90 percent in her family.
  • Be three times less likely to become HIV-positive.
  • Have fewer, healthier children who are 40 percent more likely to live past the age of five.[95]

Plan International also created a campaign to establish an International Day of the Girl. The goals of this initiative are to raise global awareness of the unique challenges facing girls, as well as the key role they have in addressing larger poverty and development challenges. A delegation of girls from Plan Canada introduced the idea to Rona Ambrose, Canada’s Minister of Public Works and Government Services and Minister for Status of Women, at the 55th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women at United Nations Headquarters in February 2011. In March 2011, Canada’s Parliament unanimously adopted a motion requesting that Canada take the lead at the United Nations in the initiative to proclaim an International Day of the Girl.[96] The General Assembly of the United Nations adopted an International Day of the Girl Child on December 19, 2011. The first International Day of the Girl Child is October 11, 2012.

Its most recent research has led PLAN International to identify a need to coordinate projects that address boys’ roles in their communities, as well as finding ways of including boys in activities that reduce gender discrimination. Since political, religious and local community leaders are most often men, men and boys have great influence over any effort to improve girls’ lives and achieve gender equality. PLAN International’s 2011 Annual Report points out that men have more influence and may be able to convince communities to curb early marriage and female genital mutilation (FGM) more effectively than women. Egyptian religious leader Sheikh Saad, who has campaigned against the practice, is quoted in the report: “We have decided that our daughter will not go through this bad, inhumane experience […] I am part of the change.”[97]

Art and literature

Historically, art and literature in Western culture has portrayed girls as symbols of innocence, purity, virtue and hope. Egyptian murals included sympathetic portraits of young girls who were daughters of royalty. Sappho’s poetry carries love poems addressed to girls.

In Europe, some early paintings featuring girls were Petrus Christus’ Portrait of a Young Girl (about 1460), Juan de Flandes’ Portrait of a Young Girl (about 1505), Frans Hals’ Die Amme mit dem Kind in 1620, Diego Velázquez’ Las Meninas in 1656, Jan Steen’s The Feast of St. Nicolas (about 1660) and Johannes Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring along with Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window. Later paintings of girls include Albert Anker’s portrait of a Girl with a Domino Tower and Camille Pissarro’s 1883 Portrait of a Felix Daughter.

Mary Cassatt painted many famous Impressionist works that idealize the innocence of girls and the mother-daughter bond, for example her 1884 work Children on the Beach. During the same era, Whistler’s Harmony in Gray and Green: Miss Cicely Alexander and The White Girl depict girls in the same light.

The European children’s literature canon includes many notable works with young female protagonists. Traditional fairy tales have preserved memorable stories about girls. Among these are Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Rapunzel, The Princess and the Pea and the Brothers Grimm’s Little Red Riding Hood. Well-known children’s books about girls include Heidi, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the Nancy Drew series, Little House on the Prairie, Madeline, Pippi Longstocking, A Wrinkle in Time, Dragonsong, and Little Women.

Beginning in the late Victorian era, more nuanced depictions of girl protagonists became popular. Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Match Girl, The Little Mermaid, and other tales featured themes that ventured into tragedy. Published in 1865, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll featured a widely noted female protagonist, Alice, confronting eccentric characters and intellectual puzzles in surreal settings. The character of the plucky, yet proper, Alice has proven immensely popular and inspired similar heroines in literature and pop culture.[98] Literature followed different cultural currents, sometimes romanticizing and idealizing girlhood, and at other times developing under the influence of the growing literary realism movement. Many Victorian novels begin with the childhood of their heroine, such as Jane Eyre, an orphan who suffers ill treatment from her guardians and then at a girls’ boarding school. The character Natasha in War and Peace, on the other hand, is sentimentalized.

By the 20th century, the portrayal of girls in fiction had for the most part abandoned idealized portrayals of girls. Popular literary novels include Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird in which a young girl, Scout, is faced with the awareness of the forces of bigotry in her community. Vladimir Nabokov’s controversial book Lolita (1955) is about a doomed relationship between a 12-year-old girl and an adult scholar as they travel across the United States. Zazie dans le métro (Zazie in the Metro) (1959) by Raymond Queneau is a popular French novel that humorously celebrates the innocence and precocity of Zazie, who ventures off on her own to explore Paris, escaping from her uncle (a professional female impersonator) and her mother (who is preoccupied by a meeting with her lover). Zazie was also made into a popular movie in 1960 (Zazie dans le Métro) by French director Louis Malle.

Books which have both boy and girl protagonists have tended to focus more on the boys, but important girl characters appear in Knight’s Castle, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, The Book of Three and the Harry Potter series.

Recent novels with an adult audience have included reflections on girlhood experiences. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden begins as the female main character and her sister are dropped off in the pleasure district after being separated from their family in 19th-century Japan. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See traces the laotong (old sames) bond of friendship between a pair of childhood friends in modern Beijing, and the parallel friendship of their ancestors in 19th-century Hunan, China.

  • Girl with a Pearl Earring, by Johannes Vermeer

  • The Salona Girl, marble head from city of Salona, 3rd century AD (archaeological museum, Zagreb)

    The Salona Girl, marble head from city of Salona, 3rd century AD (archaeological museum, Zagreb)

Popular culture

There have been many comic books and comic strips featuring a girl as the main character such as Little Lulu and Little Orphan Annie from the US, and Minnie the Minx from the UK. In superhero comic books an early girl character was Etta Candy, one of Wonder Woman’s sidekicks. In the Peanuts series (by Charles Schulz) girl characters include Peppermint Patty, Lucy van Pelt and Sally Brown.

In Japanese animated cartoons and comic books girls are often protagonists. Most of Hayao Miyazaki’s animated films feature a young girl heroine, as in Majo no takkyūbin (Kiki’s Delivery Service). There are many other girl protagonists in the shōjo style of manga, which is targeted at girls as an audience. Among these are The Wallflower, Ceres, Celestial Legend, Tokyo Mew Mew and Full Moon o Sagashite. Meanwhile, some genres of Japanese cartoons may feature sexualized and objectified portrayals of girls.

The term girl is widely heard in the lyrics of popular music (such as with the song «About a Girl»), most often meaning a young adult or teenaged female.

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Girls.

Look up girl in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

  • Female infanticide
  • Girl group
  • Tomboy
  • Woman
  • Shōjo

References

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Источник

  • #1

should In the past go with past tense or present perfect?

In the past, girls were ( or have been?) expected to obedient to their parents.

    • dojibear


    • #2

    This depends on your meaning. What does «in the past» mean?

    If «in the past» means «before 2010» or «before 1990», say were.

    If «in the past» means «until yesterday, but today this is changing», say have been.

    • #3

    Also note:
    «…expected to obedient to their parents.»:cross: «…expected to be obedient to their parents.:tick:

    dojibear


    • #4

    expected to obey their parents
    expected to be obedient to their parents

    Wordy McWordface


    • #5

    I would not use a present perfect in that sentence. «In the past» is clearly a finished period of time with no connection to or impact on the present, so you need to use a past tense. It should be, for example:

    «In the past, girls were expected to obey their parents.»
    or
    «In the past, girls were expected to be obedient to their parents.»

    Источник

    • Top Definitions
    • Quiz
    • Related Content
    • More About Girl
    • Examples
    • British

    This shows grade level based on the word’s complexity.

    See synonyms for: girl / girls on Thesaurus.com

    This shows grade level based on the word’s complexity.

    noun

    a female child, from birth to full growth.

    a young, immature woman, especially formerly, an unmarried one.

    a daughter: My wife and I have two girls.

    Informal: Sometimes Offensive. a grown woman, especially when referred to familiarly: She’s having the girls over for bridge next week.

    Older Use: Usually Offensive. a female servant, as a maid.

    Older Use: Usually Offensive. a female employee, especially an office assistant.

    a female who is from or native to a given place: She’s a Missouri girl.

    girls, (used with a singular or plural verb)

    1. a range of sizes from 7 to 14, for garments made for girls.
    2. a garment in this size range.
    3. the department or section of a store where these garments are sold.

    girls, Slang. one’s breasts (usually preceded by the, my, etc., and primarily used self-referentially by women).

    QUIZ

    CAN YOU ANSWER THESE COMMON GRAMMAR DEBATES?

    There are grammar debates that never die; and the ones highlighted in the questions in this quiz are sure to rile everyone up once again. Do you know how to answer the questions that cause some of the greatest grammar debates?

    Which sentence is correct?

    Origin of girl

    First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English gurle, girle, gerle “child, young person”; compare Old English gyrela, gi(e)rela “item of dress, apparel” (presumably worn by the young in the late Old English period, and hence used as a metonym)

    usage note for girl

    Some adult women are offended if referred to as a girl, or informally, a gal. However, a group of adult female friends often refer to themselves as the girls, and their “girls night out” implies the company of adult females. Also, a woman may express camaraderie by addressing another woman as girl, as in You go, girl! or Attagirl!
    Referring to one’s female office assistant or housekeeper as the girl or my girl, once in common use, is now considered unacceptable. Working girl, meaning “a woman who works,” girl/gal Friday, meaning “a female office assistant,” and other occupational terms such as career girl and college girl, are also dated and often perceived as insulting. Working girl as a slang term meaning “a prostitute” is sometimes used by female prostitutes as a euphemistic self-reference. See also lady, woman.

    Words nearby girl

    girdlescone, girdle-tailed lizard, girdle traverse, gird one’s loins, Girgenti, girl, girl band, girl Friday, girlfriend, girlfriend experience, girl guide

    Dictionary.com Unabridged
    Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

    MORE ABOUT GIRL

    Where does the word girl come from?

    The word girl, meaning “a female child,” originally meant any “child” or “young person,” regardless of gender. Girl, for “child,” is recorded around 1250–1300.

    However, the original source of the word is uncertain. Scholars point to Old English words like gyrela, “an item of dress, apparel,” presumably of a type worn by and popular with a young person back then.

    Guess what other word has obscure roots? Boy. Discover why in our slideshow “‘Dog,’ ‘Boy,’ And Other Words That We Don’t Know Where They Came From.”

    Did you know … ?

    While it is usually used to mean “female child,” the word girl is also sometimes used in reference to young adult or adult women, such as in girl bands or a girlfriend. Parents also use the word girls for their daughters of any age.

    While it is often used in a similar manner to its male counterpart boy, the word girl can have sexist implications that boy does not—although boy has its own racist past. For example, the idea of “a boy acting like a girl” is often used as a sexist or even anti-gay insult that doesn’t have an exact equivalent in “a girl acting like a boy.” The word tomboy, in fact, can often carry a positive connotation.

    Similarly, referring to adult women as girls can have demeaning or sexist implications that aren’t always as prevalent when using boy to refer to an adult man (e.g., “Boys will be boys”).

    That said, please note that referring to a Black adult man or other male members of minority groups as boy is racist.

    Words related to girl

    How to use girl in a sentence

    • Another cheer parent, April Grant, told VOSD she also found the reasoning they cut Ingalls’ daughter suspect, because several other girls caught vaping in recent years made the team.

    • If you find a girl who is interested in calculus, you don’t squash that.

    • She’s the girl next door that millennials grew up with, from her debut on Saved by the Bell and as a cheerleader on Bring It On.

    • Data from the CRISPR’d baby girls, for example, showed that the experiment littered their genomes with off-target edits at the embryo stage.

    • The good news is that the Malala Fund and its partners are working to mitigate some of the current challenges to girls’ learning.

    • The brother of a girl who made her debut in New Orleans society was shaking his fists in excitement.

    • But, but … there was a token black girl in the background, Target cried in its defense!

    • Once upon a time, a girl named Onika Maraj dreamed of being an actress.

    • But religious tolerance would be a wholesome goodie for every boy and girl.

    • They made quiet plans together, saying that when they had a child together, they wanted a girl called Grace.

    • Was he really condemned to an eternal solitude because of the girl who had died so many years ago?

    • The two little Pontelliers were with him, and he carried Madame Ratignolle’s little girl in his arms.

    • «I hope you don’t think I speak always to strangers, like that,» said the girl in the rose hat.

    • The young man smiled at the girl, as he crushed up the notes and stuffed them into his pocket.

    • Sometimes it was a young girl, again a widow; but as often as not it was some interesting married woman.

    British Dictionary definitions for girl

    noun

    a female child from birth to young womanhood

    a young unmarried woman; lass; maid

    informal a sweetheart or girlfriend

    informal a woman of any age

    a female employee, esp a female servant

    Southern African derogatory a Black female servant of any age

    the girls (usually plural) informal a group of women, esp acquaintances

    Word Origin for girl

    C13: of uncertain origin; perhaps related to Low German Göre boy, girl

    usage for girl

    The use of girl as in meaning 4, to refer to a woman of any age, is highly likely to be considered old-fashioned or to cause offence

    Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
    © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
    Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

    Источник

    It’s by no means unusual for words to change their meaning over time. But thanks to the twists and turns of language – and the convoluted history of English, in particular – some words end up quite a distance from where they began, as the following bizarre etymological stories illustrate.

    1. A blockbuster was originally a bomb

    In some instances, the original meaning of a word might be hiding in plain sight, and this is one of them: a blockbuster is literally a bomb large enough to destroy an entire block of buildings. In this sense, the first blockbusters were produced by the RAF during the second word war, the very earliest of which – weighing an impressive 4,000lb – was dropped on the German city of Emden during an air raid in March 1941. The wartime press was quick to pounce on the nickname “blockbuster”, and soon it was being used figuratively to describe anything and everything that had an impressive or devastating effect. The military connotations gradually disappeared after the war, leaving us with the word we use today.

    2. Girl was originally a girl or boy

    When Geoffrey Chaucer wrote of the “young girls of the diocese” in the prologue to the Canterbury Tales in the late 1300s, he wasn’t just talking about young women. Back when the word “girl” first appeared in the language, in the Middle English period, it was used to mean “child”, regardless of the gender of the child in question. That didn’t begin to change until the early 15th century, when the word “boy” – thought to have been borrowed into English from French around a century earlier as another name for a slave, or a man of lowly birth – began to be used more generally for any young man. As boy encroached on its meaning, girl was forced to change or else risk disappearing from the language altogether.

    3. A bimbo was originally a man

    Bizarrely, bimbo is another word to have changed its sex. Derived from an Italian word for a baby boy, when it first emerged in American slang around the turn of the 20th century, it referred to a menacing, brutish bully (perhaps a reference to a baby’s equally stocky, thickset physique) or a dolt. It didn’t take too long for things to change, however, as in 1920 a song was written for a Broadway revue entitled My Little Bimbo Down On The Bamboo Isle, which referred not to a brutish man, but to a beautiful, voluptuous woman. Precisely what instigated the change is unclear, although one theory suggests that both muscle-bound heavies and voluptuous women both risk being admired more for their appearance than anything else. No matter what inspired it, the term bimbo came to be all but exclusively attached to women, to the extent that an exclusively male equivalent, himbo, had to be invented in the late 80s to redress the balance.

    4. Alcohol was originally eyeshadow

    The ancient Egyptians made their distinctive jet-black eyeshadow out of the mineral stibnite, which was crushed and heated to produce a fine dust that could then be mixed with animal grease to make a cosmetic paste. The name of this paste was al-kohl, a term derived from an ancient Arabic name meaning “the stain” or “the paint”. Alchemists and scientists of the European middle ages then picked up this term from their Arabic-origin textbooks, and began applying it to all kinds of other substances that could be produced through similar means – which included the distillation of wine to form its purest essence, ultimately given the name “alcohol”.

    Kohl-eyed: Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra in the 1963 film.
    Kohl-eyed: Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra in the 1963 film. Photograph: Everett/Rex/Shutterstock

    5. A cloud was originally a rock

    The Old English word from which our modern word “cloud” derives, clud, didn’t mean “cloud” at all but rather “rock” or “mountain”; through it, cloud is actually a distant relative of words like clot and clod. But because enormous grey rainclouds can appear (albeit with a little imagination) like enormous grey masses of stone, it’s thought that these two meanings became confused, and eventually the meteorological sense of the word won out to give us the word we use today.

    6. A cupboard was originally a table

    A cupboard, quite literally, was originally just a board on which to place your cups. Or put another way, a cupboard was originally a table – as was a sideboard, incidentally (albeit one placed specifically at the side of a room). No one is entirely sure why, but by the early 16th century that meaning had begun to disappear from the language, and a cupboard was no longer a tabletop on which to use or display one’s crockery, but a covered recess in which to store it. By the 17th century, people were beginning to store food in cupboards (to cry “cupboard” meant “to crave food” in the late 1600s), while the author Wilkie Collins was the first to find a “skeleton in his cupboard” (an expression later changed to closet) in 1859.

    7. A handicap was originally a fair exchange

    There’s a pernicious old myth that claims the word handicap refers to beggars, wounded by war and so unable to work, relying on begging with their upturned caps in their hands just to make ends meet. The true origin of the word handicap is much more bizarre: originally, it referred to a means of securing a fair deal once popular among medieval traders, in which two parties offering goods for exchange would call upon a neutral third party, or umpire, to oversee the deal. The umpire would assess the value of the goods involved, and give the owner of the less valuable goods a cash figure that they would have to add to the deal to make it fair.

    Both traders would then take a small gratuity or a token amount of cash in their hands, and go to place their hand inside the umpire’s cap. If both agreed to the deal, they would drop the cash into the cap (which the umpire would get to keep, as his fee for securing a fair deal) and the deal would be done; if neither (or just one) trader agreed, the umpire would get nothing and no deal would go ahead. It was from this image of the value of individual items being assessed and compared that the first handicap horse races were introduced. The notion of the better horses in a handicap race being intentionally weighted down meant the word handicap eventually came to mean a hindrance or disability.

    8. A meerkat was originally a monkey

    The name “meerkat” probably has its origins in markata, a Sanskrit word meaning “ape”. This word was then picked up from central Asia by European explorers and traders in the early middle ages who altered it to meerkat, a Dutch-inspired word essentially meaning “sea-cat”. In this sense, the word probably became little more than a placeholder for any four-legged animal that originated overseas, and was ultimately first used in print in 1598 by a Dutch merchant sailor to refer to a South American monkey, rather than an endearing African mongoose.

    9. A moment was once precisely 90 seconds

    “Moment” has its origins in the Latin word for movement, momentum, and as a general word for a short period of time probably refers to the slightest movement of the hands of a clock. But, oddly, the word “moment” wasn’t always so general: in the medieval period, the 24 hours of the day were each divided into four 15-minute segments known as points, each of which in turn was divided into 10 shorter segments known as moments. So next time someone says they’re going to be a moment, remind them that by definition they’re going to be precisely one fortieth of an hour – or exactly 90 seconds.

    10. A treadmill was originally a prison punishment

    It might come as little surprise to learn there’s a connection between gym equipment and hard labour punishments doled out in Victorian prisons, but the fact is that the original treadmill was an enormous man-powered mill used for tasks such as crushing rocks and grinding grain.

    Invented by a 19th-century engineer named Sir William Cubitt, the original treadmill was essentially a never-ending staircase – a wheel of steps encircling a vast cylinder attached to a millstone, on which convicts could be gainfully employed for many hours a day; famously, Oscar Wilde was made to toil away on the treadmill during his imprisonment in Reading jail in 1895. Prison reform after the turn of last century made Cubitt’s treadmill a thing of the past, but the term was resurrected in the 50s during the post-war vogue for health and fitness, and was applied to an item of gym equipment likewise comprised of a (seemingly endless) foot-powered belt.

    Paul Anthony Jones’s The Accidental Dictionary is published by Elliott & Thompson, £12.99

    Источник

    Farm-Fresh balance.pngYMMV • Transmit blue.pngRadar • WikEd fancyquotes.pngQuotes • (Emoticon happy.pngFunny • Heart.pngHeartwarming • Silk award star gold 3.pngAwesome) • Refridgerator.pngFridge • Group.pngCharacters • Script edit.pngFanfic Recs • Skull0.pngNightmare Fuel • Rsz 1rsz 2rsz 1shout-out icon.pngShout Out • Magnifier.pngPlot • Gota icono.pngTear Jerker • Bug-silk.pngHeadscratchers • Help.pngTrivia • WMG • FilmRoll-small.pngRecap • Rainbow.pngHo Yay • Photo link.pngImage Links • Nyan-Cat-Original.pngMemes • Haiku-wide-icon.pngHaiku • Laconic • Library science symbol .svg Source • Setting

    WordGirl is an animated television show on PBS. The title character is a superhero who fights crime with her powers of literacy as well as her powers as a Flying Brick. The show is an Affectionate Parody of the superhero genre, and uses writers from comedy sketch shows like Saturday Night Live, plus actors known for adlibbing ability, in hopes of making a show as entertaining for adults as it is educational for kids.

    WordGirl uses her great vocabulary to fend off villains such as The Butcher, Dr. Two Brains, Granny May, Tobey, and Chuck The Evil Sandwich Making Guy. She never reveals her alter-ego to anyone, including her own family. She and Huggy use their crashed spaceship as a secret hideout.

    The show provides examples of:

    • Absent-Minded Professor: Prof. Boxleitner. It’s what changed him into Dr. Two-Brains!
    • Adorkable: Tobey fits the description perfectly.
    • Adults Are Useless: It’s a kids’ show. Surprised? Averted, though, with some of the villains. Becky’s parents also seem to be getting smarter and more useful as both have shown off the ability to outwit villains when needed.
    • AI Is a Crapshoot: Inverted, Tobey’s Mecha-Mooks occasionally refuse to obey him, sometimes even turning against him. Notable in particular with his WordBot in the episode by the same name, which he programmed to be «devoted» (one of the words of the day) to him, only for it to turn against him when he kept paying too much attention to WordGirl and decide to be devoted to destruction instead.
    • Alien Among Us: Though her intentions are good!
    • All Girls Like Ponies: WordGirl’s favorite show is The Pretty Princess and Magic Pony Power Hour, she has a collection of porcelain unicorns, and even a unicorn poster on her bedroom wall.
      • Violet, as well, is a fan of Pretty Princess and is fond of pegasi.
      • Leslie also likes this show.
      • Lady Redundant Woman can be seen watching this at her apartment.
    • Alliterative Name:
      • Becky Botsford, Bampy Botsford, Beatrice Bixby, Seymour Smooth, and Shelley Smalls are all examples of this.
    • All Love Is Unrequited: The two main romances of the show both fit: Tobey crushes on WordGirl, who doesn’t like him, while she crushes on Scoops, who doesn’t seem to notice.
    • All-Star Cast: See Hey, It’s That Voice! below.
    • Ambiguous Disorder: Violet Heaslip, she has tenuous grasp on reality around her.
    • Ambiguously Brown: Justified for WordGirl, since that’s what the creator of the show was really shooting for. Interestingly enough, her adoptive family are a -different shade- of ambiguous brown.
      • Yes, her adoptive family.
    • And Call Him George: Eileen’s enthusiastic tea party and dressing-up of Captain Huggyface.
    • Annoying Younger Sibling: TJ
    • Art Initiates Life: Lady Redundant Woman can bring pictures to life.
    • A Simple Plan: In fact, one of the show’s episodes is titled «A Simple Plan.»
    • Attack of the 50 Foot Whatever: Eileen in pretty much all of her episodes (first seen in «The Birthday Girl»).
      • Tobey’s gigantic Mecha-Mooks.
    • Attack Pattern Alpha: WordGirl’s «Emergency Plans».
    • Attention Deficit Ooh Shiny: Violet can be very easily distracted.
    • Badass Grandpa: Bampy, Becky’s grandfather, who is the only non-main character to know her secret identity, and can jump and backflip like nobody’s business. He took down a giant robot with just a screwdriver! Twice!
    • Badass Mustache: Steve McClean in «The Ballad of Steve McClean» had a mustache so impressive that various other characters tried to be as snazzy as him with fake mustaches of their own. It even got to the point where Dr. Two-Brains, in an attempt to reclaim his title as number one villain, redubbed himself as Dr. Cool-Brains and had two mustaches, with one attached to his exposed brain.
    • Banana Peel: Captain Huggyface uses one to defeat The Whammer in «Crime in the Key of V.»
    • Basement Dweller: This is Chuck the Evil Sandwich-Making Guy’s secret villain lair.
      • He tried to move into his own lair once, but got too homesick and ended up moving back.
    • Being Good Sucks: Becky frequently misses fun events in her life because of her crime fighting. It even leads to to wish that WordGirl didn’t exist in «A World Without WordGirl».
    • Belligerent Sexual Tension: Becky and Tobey’s «rivalry».
      • Though it is just one sided.
    • Berserk Button: Chuck the Evil Sandwich-Making Guy has been shown to be extremely offended by negative comments about sandwiches. The best example of this is in the episode, «Chuck The Nice Pencil-Selling Guy».
      • Leslie gets enraged when someone gets the facts of The Pretty Princess and Magic Pony Power Hour wrong.
      • Lady Redundant Woman will make anyone who messes with her copy machine pay. When Royal Dandy made the mistake of doing this, she erased him from existence!
      • Ms. Question hates the phrase «No questions asked.»
      • WordGirl gets enraged everytime someone breaks her favorite unicorn, Angel Face
      • Eileen wants things her way, if you don’t let her, you will be sorry.
      • Even some of Tobey’s robots are seen to go berserk because of things other characters say or do.
    • Big Red Button: In «Mecha Mouse», Two-Brains is defeated by one of the self-destruct variety. It’s made frustrating by the fact that it was on well-designed power armor. Also, the button was on the exterior, which Two-Brains couldn’t touch anyway.
      • Then there’s the «Holy Cow! Don’t Press This Button!» button.
        • And the «Merge With Copier» button.
    • Big Eater: Captain Huggyface/Bob, who nullifies the Butcher’s meat attacks by eating them.
    • Big Word Shout:

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      WordGirl: Change it BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK !

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    • Bilingual Bonus: In «The Fill-In», the fictional ancient city Santa Palabra literally means «Saint Word» in English.
    • Big No: Employed quite a few times in the series.
    • Black Comedy:

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     Mayor: «Whoa — a dog from the old days! That dog is probably dead now.» — «Two Brains Quartet»

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    • Blatant Lies: Becky’s many excuses whenever she must change into her superhero identity.
    • BLAM Episode: «Sandwich World».
      • «Mouse Brain Take Over» may be the most prominent example of this trope on the show, depending on individual’s opinions.
    • Brainwashed: Mr. Big’s whole gimmick.
    • Blond Guys Are Evil: Tobey.
      • Nocan The Contrarian is another example.
    • Blondes Are Evil: Victoria Best, Lady Redundant Woman, Miss Power, and Leslie can all be considered examples.
    • Bow Ties Are Cool: Tobey wears one. So does Bampy. Both of them are pretty cool.
      • So does Dr. Two-Brains, on that note…
    • Brainy Brunette: Becky Botsford, aka WordGirl
    • Buffy-Speak: Chuck the Evil Sandwich-Making Guy. The name speaks for itself.
      • Not to mention his brother, Brent the Handsome, Successful, Everybody Loves Him Sandwich-Making Guy. Yes that’s his full name.
    • Bumbling Dad: Becky’s Dad…but her Mom’s just as bad.
    • The Butcher: The name of one of the main villains. Lampshaded when «The Baker» and «The Candlestick Maker» are added to the mix.
    • Calling Your Attacks: Used by the Butcher and occasionally Tobey, and Lampshaded by WordGirl in «Book Ends».
      • Word Girl herself frequently does this as well. «Monkey Throw!»
    • Cartoon Cheese: Thanks to Two-Brains’ cheese addiction, there are more examples of this in the show than you can count.
    • Catch Phrase: «Worrrd UP!»
      • Warden Chalmers has one too: «…I’ll eat my hat!» Made funny by the fact that he actually WILL eat his hat, and seems to enjoy the taste.
    • Charlie and the Chocolate Parody: «Who Wants Candy?»
    • Chronic Villainy: «Tobey Goes Good».
    • City of Adventure
    • Clark Kenting: Occasionally lampshaded.
      • In «WordGirl Makes a Mistake,» Becky tells both Mr. Botsford and T.J. her origin story. They don’t believe her.
    • Clear My Name: WordGirl has had to do this in multiple episodes, notably in «The Wrong Side Of The Law».
    • Cliff Hanger: The two part stories «The Wrong Side of the Law, «WordGirl Makes a Mistake» and «A Better Mousetrap.» It was one of the featured words in the second half of «A Better Mousetrap,» with WordGirl providing the definition.
    • Cliffhanger Copout: At the end of part 1 of «WordGirl Makes a Mistake,» Mr. Big uses the Lexinite to disable WordGirl by clipping a collar around her neck with a star-shaped chunk of it on. No wait, come part 2 a few minutes later, she’s actually been put in a Lexinite cage instead.
    • Clip Show: «A Better Mousetrap.» The first half featured WordGirl reminiscing with Scoops about the many times that she’s defeated Dr. Two Brains. At the end of the first half, Two Brains took over the show, then in the second half he showed a series of clips designed to humiliate WordGirl.
    • Cloning Blues: In «The Young and the Meatless», one of Lady Redundant Woman’s copies falls in love with and starts dating The Butcher, while trying to avoid disappearing.
    • Contrived Coincidence: Very, very often with the themed villains. One episode’s plot is even based around lampshading this trope.
    • Continuity Cavalcade: «Showdown at the Super Secret Spaceship Hideout». Dr. Two-Brains discovers the room where WordGirl keeps mementos of all of her past adventures, including weapons from all of the other villains and a display that has all of the different ray guns Two-Brains has used in the show. The episode even gives a nod to the fact that Dr. Two-Brains once penned the book Superheroes and You: A Practical Guide.
    • Corrupt Corporate Executive: Mr. Big, more or less
    • Crazy Prepared: WordGirl
      • How many emergency plans does she have?
    • Cloudcuckoolander: Violet Heaslip.
    • Cool Old Lady: Is there any argument that Granny May’s robotic, jet-propelled, air-conditioned supersuit is not cool?
    • Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Lampshaded in «When Life Gives You Potatoes…», when Dr. Two-Brains’ henchmen ask him why he doesn’t just use the gold he steals to buy things, instead of turning it into potato salad and then into cheese. Dr. Two-Brains instantly rejects this idea because it doesn’t fit his cheese theme.
      • The Butcher could’ve been rich is he just sold the meat at an affordable price. Chuck tries to make a legit life but only to return a life of crime over a small slight.
    • Darker and Edgier: The Rise of Miss Power.
    • Dating Catwoman: Tobey rather obviously has a thing for WordGirl, though she continually rebuffs him.
    • Deadpan Snarker: Leslie
    • Department of Redundancy Department: Lady Redundant Woman is a villainess whose superpower is making copies of herself, and she first sends them out to steal a sofa, a couch, and a futon. She also speaks in this manner (taunting WordGirl: «You’re confused…perplexed…»).
      • Warden Chalmers talks like this sometimes.

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      Warden Chalmers: Today is a historic day in history, for on this historic day, history will show that we have indeed made history.

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      • In fact, many of the characters speak redundantly as a means for the show to indirectly teach kids synonyms.
    • Did Not Do the Research: Chuck the Evil Sandwich Making Guy, when he decides to reinvent himself as «The Handsome Panther». It quickly becomes clear that he knows pretty much nothing about «real» panthers, such as the fact that they’re nocturnal.
    • Do Not Adjust Your Set: Miss Power in «The Rise of Miss Power.»
    • Double Entendre:

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      WordGirl: «Hold it right there, Butch…er?»

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      • In Tobey’s very first episode, (back when the series was still comprised of shorts,) we got this fun little exchange:

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    Becky: «You’re awfully mischievous.»

    Tobey: «Mischievous! Are you trying to impress me with your vocabulary?»

    Becky: «I’m not trying to impress anyone.»

    Tobey: «Why didn’t you just say I’m a naughty boy, hmm?»

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      • In the original shorts, Reginald referred to The Butcher as «smelly wiener man», and the Grocery Store Manager told him he’d have to «leave his personal meat at home».
    • Dramatic Irony: In «The Wrong Side of the Law, Pt. 1,» it is made obvious to the viewer immediately that the Birthday Girl is the criminal, but nobody else can figure it out. Even WordGirl doesn’t get the answer right away, even though to her it should be obvious.
    • Drunk with Power: As her name suggests — Miss Power. She nearly corrupts Word Girl as well.
      • Leslie has a brief moment of this in «Leslie Makes It Big».
    • Edutainment Show: The main purpose of the show, though it is written and acted cleverly enough to attract a large Periphery Demographic.
    • Einstein Hair: Two-Brains, of course.
    • Elmuh Fudd Syndwome: Eileen
    • Enemy Mine: Word Girl joins forces with Dr. Two-Brains in the episodes «Mouse Army» and «Dr. Three-Brains»
      • In «The Rise Of Miss Power», all of the show’s villains team-up against Miss Power and help Word Girl defeat her.
    • Episode Title Card: Every single one of them.
    • Everyone Loves Blondes: There are quite a few blonde characters.
    • Everything’s Better with Monkeys: Captain Huggyface, General Smoochington, and even Colonel Gigglecheeks.
    • Cute Kitten: Little Mittens in «Meat with a Side of Cute», and Violet’s pet cat. Possibly even Bootsy The Cat in «Mousezilla».
    • Evil Albino: Dr. Two Brains due to a Freak Lab Accident involving an albino lab rat… who was also evil.
    • Evil Is Hammy: Most of the villains are this way.
    • Evil Minions
    • Evil Genius: Tobey and Victoria Best, not to mention Dr. Two Brains.
    • Evil Redhead: Eileen AKA the Birthday girl
    • Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Chuck the Evil Sandwich Making Guy, The Butcher, and Dr. Two Brains are a sandwich chef, a butcher, and a guy with two brains, literally.
    • Extracurricular Enthusiast: Victoria Best is a negative example. She’s a student forced by her parents to be «the best» at every activity. She’s genuinely good at all of them, and flaunts her overachieving, but is a jerk and a Sore Loser.
    • Evil Tastes Good

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     Dr. Two-Brains: (munching on his own cheese ball) I may be bad, but I sure taste good.

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    • Face Heel Turn: Dr. Two-Brains was actually the Q to WordGirl’s James Bond before his Freak Lab Accident, in the serial two-minute shorts.
    • Face Palm: Dr. Two Brains, WordGirl, and other characters do this from time to time.
    • Fan Boy: Glen
      • Ascended Fanboy no less.
      • TJ is Word Girl’s biggest fanboy.
    • Flanderization: WordGirl’s arrogance seems to be at a premium in season 3.
    • Flying Brick
    • Forgot About His Powers: Even Wordgirl is not immune to this occasionally.
      • We also see the villains in jail frequently, yet nothing is ever done to stop them from using their superpowers except in «The Return Of The Reprise Of Lady Redundant Woman». It’s as if they don’t have powers while in jail.
    • For Halloween I Am Going as Myself: Implied in «Vocab Bee,» then subverted in «Tobey’s Tricks and Treats»
    • Formally-Named Pet: That’s Captain Huggyface, to you!
      • Also Granny May’s cat «Colonel Mustard», and the other two monkeys in the show — General Smoochington and Colonel Gigglecheecks.
    • Four-Fingered Hands: All human characters — and even the monkey — have four fingers.
    • Freak Lab Accident: Dr. Two-Brains’ origin.
    • Gadgeteer Genius: Tobey. Not much else to say, really.
    • Genius Bruiser: Word Girl
    • Genre Savvy: When something that might be peril rears its ugly head, WordGirl knows she’s facing a Harmless Villain who is in no way threatening to her. She even offers the occasional bit of advice.
    • Getting Crap Past the Radar: «A Hero, a Thief, a Store and Its Owner» is probably one of the only PBS Kids episodes whose namesake is an X-rated movie.
      • In the episode «The Invisi-Bill Hand», Invisi-Bill is trying to hail a cab and he said to himself, «Can’t an invisible guy get a Taxi around here?» Sounds like a black joke to me.
      • «I’m going to prove that I’m smarter than you, and then you’ll be mine, all mine!»
    • Glowing Eyes of Doom: Victoria and her parents have these several times in the episode «Victoria Best»
    • Gollum Made Me Do It: Also Dr. Two-Brains

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    Dr. Two-Brain’s Henchman: «Stop running, stop!»

    Dr. Two-Brains: «I can’t help it! Mouse brain makes me run!»

    —»When Life Gives You Potatoes…»

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    • The Good Captain: Huggyface, to be precise.
    • Granola Girl: Violet, to some degree.
    • G-Rated Drug: Most prominently, Two Brains’ apparent cheese addiction. He seems to go through serious withdrawal in «A Simple Plan».
    • Green Aesop: In «Earth Day Girl», especially during the «Cleanup Montage», which is so campy and over-the-top that it may actually be a Stealth Parody.
    • Group Hug: In the episode «Granny’s Book Club» all the villains hug Granny May, one even exclaiming «Hugsies!»
    • Girlish Pigtails: Victoria Best
      • Also Violet and Becky, when they were very young.
    • Hey, It’s That Voice!: Nearly every character is played by a famous actor/comedian. Chris Parnell of SNL fame, H. Jon Benjamin from Home Movies, Patton Oswalt from Ratatouille, John C. McGinley…just check out the cast page on IMDB.
      • Doctor Two-Brains is Tom Kenny aka SpongeBob SquarePants
    • Hair Reboot: Seen in «Becky’s Birthday.»
    • Happily Adopted: While being the only member of her family that seems to remember that she’s adopted, Becky shows no inclination to find her real parents. It’s also extremely easy for the viewers to forget she’s adopted (aside from the opening theme singing she’s «from the planet Lexicon») since it’s almost never mentioned and she’s very close to her family.
    • Happily Married: The Botsfords are really the only example of this one the show, but they’re a perfect example of it. They contrast with all the other seemingly single parents on the show (The Butcher’s father, Great Granny May, supposedly Granny May herself since she has grandchildren, Chuck and Brent’s mother, Mrs. Heaslip, Clair MacCallister, possibly Eileen’s mom is a single parent as a dad has never been mentioned, etc.). Even the two other married couples, the Mings and the Bests, aren’t shown having any measurable degree of chemistry between them.
    • Hiccup Hijinks: «Word (Hicc) Up!,» with Mr. Botsford being the one to come up with all the crazy cures. Amusingly, it’s one of the villains (Chuck the Evil-Sandwich-Making Guy) who comes up with the solution by telling her to simply hold her breath… only for Mr. Botsford to ruin it by scaring her into starting to hiccup again.
    • High-Class Glass: Reginald, the jeweler. Count Cloudy in «The Pretty Princess and Magic Pony Power Hour» also.
    • Human Aliens: All the way.
    • Hurl It Into the Sun: How WordGirl destroys Mr. Big’s Lexonite machine at the end of «Word Girl makes a Mistake.»
    • Hypercompetent Sidekick: Leslie to Mr. Big.
    • Idiosyncrazy: The various villains with permanent gimmicks.
      • Discussed in «The Young and the Meatless». Lady Redundant Woman and The Butcher keep trying to steal the same things because they are both meat and matching or redundant sets.
    • Incest Subtext: Becky/WordGirl and TJ. Averted a bit, because technically she’s adopted. She still finds it gross, though.
      • Now to be fair, TJ has no idea that Word Girl is his sister.
    • In-Series Nickname: Todd «Scoops» Ming.
    • Insult Backfire:

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    Mr. Big: Yes, well when you’ve got it, you’ve got it.

    —»Mr. Big»

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    • Interactive Narrator: Often Lampshaded or played with. In «Have Snob, Will Travel,» WordGirl tries directly asking the narrator where the Butcher went, since after all, she knows that he knows. The narrator refuses because, after all, there are formal (one of the featured words) rules that they’re supposed to follow regarding this sort of thing. WordGirl manages to get the one-up on him anyway.
    • Intergenerational Friendship: Steven Boxleitner and WordGirl, at the beginning of the series.
      • Possibly Exposition Guy and Eileen in «The Birthday Girl’s Monstrous Gift».
    • Interspecies Romance: Whichever shipping you may prefer, any character with WordGirl is this. Even with the most-canon shipping, WordGirl and Scoops, she’s still an alien, which might make things slightly… odd, if there’s any signs of a serious relationship.
    • Is This Thing Still On??: In «You Can’t Crush City Hall,» Chuck shouts at WordGirl from his giant sandwich press and then «signs off.» He then starts singing and dancing to himself, calling himself «Chucky-boo» and «Mr. Handsome,» until WordGirl points out that he left the PA on.
    • Jerkass: The new assistant librarian. He’s more obsessed with fining late returners.
    • Jumping Out of a Cake: Bob does this in the episode «Becky’s Birthday», and The Butcher does it in «Granny’s Book Club».
    • Kid Heroine: Obviously.
    • Kindhearted Cat Lover: Violet
    • Kryptonite Factor:

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    Mr. Big: I don’t get it, Leslie. WordGirl has always dominated me in the past, both in her battle skills as well as her flawless way with words. Something… mmm… fishy is going on around here.

    Leslie: It’s the meteorite, sir. It’s from her home planet— Lexicon. Whenever a superhero comes into contact with a meteorite from their home planet, it takes away their superpowers. Haven’t you ever read a comic book, sir?

    —»WordGirl Makes a Mistake»

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    • Lampshade Hanging: The show loves to do this.
    • Large Ham: The Whammer. Wham!
      • Large Ham? No! SMALL HAM! Nocaaaaaaaaan!
      • The Butcher, as well.

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    The Butcher: Sausage CYCLOOOOOOOOOOOONE!!

    Word Girl: Change. It. BAAAAAAAAAAAACK!!

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    • Laser-Guided Amnesia: The episode Two-Brains Forgets, used with Master of Delusion.
    • Laughably Evil: All the villains on the show.
      • Most notably, Amazing Rope Guy, who even the other villains think is lame.
    • Leet Lingo: In «Two Brains Highway,» the security code for the alarm on the rare cheese exhibit at the museum is 1337.
    • Left the Background Music On : Whenever The Butcher and Dupey interact, romantic music plays. Everyone wonders where it is coming from, then a guy apologizes and turns off his boombox.
    • Leitmotif: Dr. Twobrains organ fugue, or Victoria Best’s harpsichord ditty.
    • Light Is Not Good: Miss Power’s outfit looks similar to that of DC Comics’ Power Girl but in appearance only.
    • Limited Wardrobe: Lampshaded with both Dr. Two Brains and Becky’s wardrobes.
    • Loads and Loads of Characters: They keep adding new villains every season to keep the show fresh. The shorts originally had five villains, as of Season 4 the show has about two dozen repeat offenders.
    • Loony Fan: A bit of a spin with Glen, who emulates (until he decides to replace) his hero, Dr. Two Brains… who happens to be a villain.
    • Love Makes You Evil: Tobey’s threats to destroy the city are usually just out of an attempt to battle (and flirt with) WordGirl.
    • Loves My Alter Ego: Inverted, as Tobey is infatuated with WordGirl but usually indifferent toward Becky.
      • TJ as well.
    • Loss of Identity: Steven Boxleitner is this when his mind merges with that of a demonic lab mouse and he becomes the evil Doctor Two-Brains.
      • And played straight with TJ.
    • Made for TV Movie: «The Rise of Miss Power,» which premiered on February 20, 2012.
    • Mad Scientist: Again, Dr. Two Brains.
    • Malaproper: Arguably The Butcher’s most notable feature after the meat-based attacks; he butchers words.
    • The Man Behind the Man: Mr. Big to Chuck in «Bongo Rock».
    • Master of Delusion: See Laser-Guided Amnesia, above.
    • Meadow Run: The Butcher and Dupey (a duplicate of Lady Redundant Woman) in «The Young and the Meatless».
    • Medium Awareness: The offscreen narrator often converses with the characters, although it’s possible that the narrator is a character (i.e. in their universe an omniscient voice always narrates); at one point, however, Becky gives a thumbs up and winks at the camera. One of her friends then asks her who she’s winking at.
    • Me’s a Crowd: Lady Redundant Woman
    • Meganekko: Leslie
    • Mentor Ship: Could be loosely implied for the WordGirl/Dr. Two Brains ship, due to him teaching WordGirl everything she knows as a hero back when he was Prof. Boxleitner.
    • Mind Control: Mr. Big’s company’s mission statement, actually: «We strive to constantly use mind control.»
    • Mind Control Eyes
    • The Minnesota Fats: Steve McClean
    • Momma’s Boy: Tobey and Chuck.
    • Muggle Foster Parents: Word Girl is adopted into a fairly normal human family with no superpowers whatsoever.
    • Mundane Utility: Tobey’s artistically-gifted robot, as well as his minor-do-gooding robot in «Tobey Goes Good».
    • My God, What Have I Done? : Becky has this moment when she wished that WordGirl would never exist, not knowing that the birthday cake was enchanted due to the Energy Monster’s overload.
    • My Name Is Not Durwood: Many characters have mistaken Captain HuggyFace’s name for something like «Captain Hoozywinks» or «Colonel HairyFace».
      • Also, The Whammer could never get Chuck the Evil Sandwich-Making Guy’s name right.
    • Narrating the Obvious: There is a minor character, among the fans he’s referred to as «Exposition Guy», who is literally the personification of this trope, showing up wherever Becky is, whenever anything of importance is going on, confused and thinking it’s the police station.
      • He does this at the start of «WordGirl Makes a Mistake, Part 2» after WordGirl has already been captured. It gets him tossed into the trap with WordGirl.
    • Never Say «Die»: Becky is almost «Done For», «Finished Off», told «Good-Bye» by a villain preparing to crush her with a giant robot, and we’re often told it could be «The End» for WordGirl. Since the main character is 10 and the target audience is not quite that age, we’re never told she’s going to be killed by the few dangerous bad guys.
    • The Nicknamer: Victoria Best
    • Nightmare Fuel Coloring Book: Tobey has one of these in the episode «Cherish is the Word» — he draws a Valentine’s Day card for WordGirl picturing him holding hands with her and a robot ready to destroy her in the background.
    • Non-Human Sidekick: Captain Huggyface
    • No Sense of Direction: Exposition Guy is the definition of this.
    • No Sense of Personal Space: The Whammer. Ironically, his superpower is repelling objects.
    • Not a Date: «Have You Seen the Remote?», this troper believes, is a fine example. (On WordGirl’s part, at least.) Because we all know that the most efficient way to search for something is to go to the park and eat ice cream.
    • Not Blood Siblings: See No Yay below.
    • Not-So-Innocent Whistle: Becky’s dad does this once, and Hal Hardbargain does it in «Rat Trap».
    • Obfuscating Disability: Granny May regularly pretends to be hard-of-hearing.
    • Oblivious to Love: Scoops is very blind sighted to Becky’s affection.
      • Word Girl‘s awareness of Tobey’s crush also fluctuates from time to time.
    • One Steve Limit: While most of the characters, villains or not, have nicknames, this trope is true for the most part. However, it’s subverted in «The Ballad of Steve McClean», most likely for subtle comedic affect in that Steve McClean takes Dr. Two Brains’ Number 1 spot on the Top Villains List, and Dr. Two Brains’ original human name was Steven Boxleitner. (Fair City isn’t big enough for two villains named Steve!) After this episode, there is, quite literally, only one Steve because McClean, while showing up for silent background cameos, is never mentioned again.
    • Onion Tears: It’s shown in one episode that Raul Demiglasse, a chef who challenged others’ cooking skills on his TV show, used onion flakes to make his opponents cry.
    • Only Sane Man: Word Girl is considered a genius by the other characters — although she is pretty smart, the truth is that everyone else in the show is an idiot (with a few exceptions, like the Narrator) to one degree or another (the less dumb often manipulate the stupider ones.) The fact the populace is so easily tricked often frustrates the heroine. And this becomes a plot-point in the Big Damn Movie.
      • Pretty Princess’s magic horse.
    • Ooh, Me Accent’s Slipping: An «in-character» example. Tobey feigns a British accent unless and until he is speaking to his mother.
      • There’s also Guy Rich, who spoke with a southern accent until he revealed himself to be an ordinary person, not the affluent man he lead everyone to believe he was.
    • Outlaw Couple: Leslie and Mr. Big can be an example for this at certain points of the series. They are always cooking up schemes and trying to get away with crime together.
    • Paper-Thin Disguise: The Butcher in «Ch-ch-ch-change Day,» wearing nothing but an obviously fake mustache. That, and WordGirl herself to a degree.
      • In «Oh What a Tangled Knot You Tie, Amazing Rope Guy», the titular villain uses these combined with his impression skills to pretend to be his fellow villains and commit crimes. Being as stupid as the populus is, they actually believe him to be said villains.
    • Parental Bonus/ Genius Bonus: WordGirl’s home planet is called «Lexicon», a linguistics term that basically means «vocabulary».
    • The Password Is Always Swordfish: Chuck the Evil Sandwich-Making Guy’s password was «mustard,» and later the name of his childhood pet.
      • In the episode «Lunch Lady Chuck», Chuck threatened to demolish the whole school with a giant sandwich press, and the only way to stop it was with the password… that he forgot. Word Girl literally spends half the episode frantically scouring everywhere Chuck went during the day to try to figure out the password, to no avail… Until Chuck remembers, just in time, the password was «password».
    • Perplexing Plurals: Several characters struggle with the plural of the word «thesaurus» in «I Think I’m A Clone Now».
    • Photo Booth Montage: From the episode «Theme Park WHAM-page».
    • Picky Eater: In «The Butcher, The Baker and The Candlestick Maker,» a subplot involves Becky desperately trying to obtain a very weird type of birthday cake for her father.
      • Chuck’s boss in «Chuck The Nice Pencil Selling Guy» hates all sandwiches except grilled cheese.
    • Plot Device: Exposition Guy is a character who shortly shows up after nearly any crime is committed by one of the super villains. He constantly is showing up wherever Becky happens to be at the time, mistakenly thinking he’s at the police station. The show actively acknowledges this character is clearly just a plot device. To quote Word Girl herself after one such encounter with Exposition Guy: «Sometimes we need a little help getting the plot moving.»
      • (Lady Redundant Woman has just taken over City Hall)

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    Mayor: What do we do now?

    Exposition Guy: I’ll take this one. HEEEEEEELLLLLLLP!!! —«Line Lessons with Lady Redundant Woman»

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    • Plucky Office Girl: Mr. Big’s assistant, Leslie, is this.
    • Police Are Useless: Because if they were actually at all useful, then WordGirl wouldn’t have nearly as much to do. Lampshaded pretty blatantly in «Ch-ch-ch-change Day.» Becky and Bob are trapped by the Butcher in a bank vault surrounded by customers and are unable to transform into WordGirl and Captain Huggyface. Pressed for options, Becky suggests with a tone of hopelessness that maybe the police will solve the problem. Outside the bank, one of the police officers asks the chief for direction and he is forced to admit that he doesn’t know what to do because normally WordGirl would have solved the problem by now.
    • Powered Armor: Granny May
    • Preppy Name: Theodore «Tobey» McCalister III
    • The Rashomon: «A Hero, a Chef, a Store, and its Owner»
    • Reformed but Rejected: Tobey by WordGirl, «Tobey Goes Good».
    • Rivals Team Up: Two-Brains and WordGirl against Glen in «Dr. Three-Brains».
      • In the comic, WordGirl also teams up with Tobey against the Coalition of Malice.
    • Rogues Gallery
    • Samaritan Syndrome: Causes Becky’s frustration in «A World without WordGirl». It really doesn’t help that Bob and the narrator are there to railroad her into saving the day.
    • Sampling: In one episode, a BGM track samples the drums from Daft Punk’s Da Funk.
    • Self-Duplication: Lady Redundant Woman
    • Self Fanservice: A few minute tour of the WordGirl fanart on deviantART is enough to notice that some artists portray her as drastically enhanced.
      • Two brains has a bit of this kinda art as well.
    • Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Rather subverted, since Becky has a great vocabulary, but seems to prefer being understood rather than showing off. One episode even has her telling a villain it’s more important to use the «right» word than the biggest.
      • Another episode features a villain inducing this in people in order to sell dictionaries.
        • Except he didn’t know dictionaries actually existed.
    • Sexy Secretary: Leslie.
    • Shaped Like Itself: Beatrice Bixby : «He’s just lucky that my half-hour lunch break is only thirty minutes long.»
    • Shout-Out: The names TJ and Becky might ring a bell. A Recess bell.
      • Don’t forget the two episodes titles that are based on Beatles Songs like «Book ends» and «Banned on the run».
        • The following quote from «Kids Action News» may also ring a bell for Wrestling fans and San Diego residents alike

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     WordGirl: «Huggy, initiate secret plan number 6-1-9!»

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      • In «Mouse Brain Take-Over,» the scene where Two-Brains let’s the mouse take-over is straight out of Twin Peaks.
      • The Bat Signal, anyone?
      • May be unintentional, but «Invisi-Bill».
    • Show Within a Show: A variation: the Word Girl episodes are followed by a segment featuring a Game Show that stars its own characters (and Captain Huggyface). Like the main segment they’re intended to teach the meaning of words to the audience.
      • There’s also the Pretty Princess and Magic Pony Power Hour. The special «The Rise of Miss Power» let viewers watch an episode of it during the interstitials.
    • Silent Partner: Charlie, the larger of Dr. Two-Brains’ henchmen, never speaks out loud and the smaller of the two henchmen does all of the talking for him.
    • Single-Minded Twins: Though not twins, and inverted by the presence of Dupey in «The Young And The Meatless», Lady Redundant Woman’s clones frequently exhibit identical movements as their original, while saying the exact same thing. This is likely just a case of reducing animation and voice acting costs, even though it doesn’t make sense for LRW’s copies to know exactly what she’s going to say, how she’s going to say it, and how she’s going to move while saying it, when she does. They only have their own personalities (such as Dupey) when it’s needed for the plot.
    • Skyward Scream:
      • The Butcher provides a prime example of this in «The Young And The Meatless».
    • Smarmy Host: Both Beau Handsome and Seymour Orlando Smooth.
    • So Last Season: When the series made the jump from 2-minute shorts to a full series.
    • Spin-Off: WordGirl started as a series of shorts that appeared after Maya and Miguel.
    • Spiritual Successor: The premise is similar to The Electric Company short segmnent, «Letterman.»
    • Stalker with a Crush: Tobey.
    • Superhero
    • Super Strength: WordGirl, Eileen (aka The Birthday Girl), Nocan the Contrarian, the Whammer, and Miss Power all have this superpower.
    • Suspiciously Specific Denial: The Butcher : «Hi! I’m NOT the Butcher!» Also commonly employed during Becky’s Blatant Lies.
    • Take a Third Option: In «Change Day,» Becky and Bob are trapped in a bank vault and faced with either letting the Butcher get away with bank robbery or revealing their secret identities as WordGirl and Huggyface to everyone. They take a third option by tricking the Butcher into opening the vault.
    • Talking Is a Free Action: For WordGirl, when she stops to define a word in the middle of a heated battle.
    • Talking in Your Sleep: Dr. Two Brains is guilty of this in the episode «Showdown at the Super Secret Spaceship Hideout».
    • Talking to Himself:This has happened many times; an example would be when Two Brains rebuked TJ in «The Homerun King»
    • Talking to Themself: Seen in the short «Mouse Trap» when Dr. Two Brains argues with his former self, Steven Boxleitner.
    • The Teaser: Normally not used, but seen before the title theme in «The Rise of Miss Power» to introduce Miss Power.
    • Tech Marches On: Is intentionally averted. The producers want it to look like it could have been made in the 60s, 80s, or today. No Internet, No Home Computers (the only computers seen take up almost half the room), small corner TVs, a few passing references to home video, and the journalist wannabe works at a newspaper a la Jimmy Olsen. Even the family car looks like a station wagon from the 70s. They claim if cell phones are ever used, they’ll be bulky devices circa 1995.
    • This Is Gonna Suck: Prof. Boxleitner’s reaction when Squeaky is about to push the «Holy Cow! Don’t Press This Button!» button.

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     Prof. Boxleitner: «Oh boy. This is gonna sting.»

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    • This! Is! SPARTA!: Nocan the Contrarian. See Large Ham above.
    • That Was Objectionable: Refer to the episode «The Wrong Side of the Law».
    • Too Dumb to Live: Also in «WordGirl Makes a Mistake, Part 2.» A handyman shows up to demand his money from Mr. Big for designing the trap in which WordGirl, Captain HuggyFace and the «This Just In» guy (see just above) are imprisoned. He gets thrown into the trap and doesn’t even realize that he too is now a prisoner.
      • Seymour Smooth’s brothers are also this, to the point where they did not even know the answer to 1 + 1.
    • Undesirable Prize: The prizes on the May I Have a Word? game show segments are almost inevitably some form of this.
    • The Unintelligible: Huggyface can only be understood by Becky.
      • TJ appears to have an understanding of his «language» in «The Homerun King», and Violet does too in «The Fill-In».
    • Thick Line Animation: It’s the page image. What do you expect?
    • The Bad Guy Wins: No, you’re reading this right. In Word Girl and Bobbleboy TJ’s success in his Word Girl bobblehead dolls business distract our hero so much, that she gets smashed to the ground by Chuck’s Crusher!! Luckily she gets better, but the villain featured for the rest of the episode was Dr. Two-Brains and NOT Chuck!
    • The Wiki Rule: It has one
    • Thou Shalt Not Kill: Word Girl doesn’t kill or even harm any villain she’s up against (Save for Tobey’s robots and Lady Redundant Woman’s copies).
      • That is the result of a PBS Kids commandment.
    • Training Montage : Lampshaded in Monkey-Robot Showdown.
      • And «I Think I’m a Clone Now».
      • And «Earth Day Girl».
      • Quite a few episodes have some type of this.
    • Ultimate Authority Mayor
    • Up, Up, and Away: WordGirl’s standard flight pose.
    • Verbal Tic: «That is totally WHAMMER!» «Are you whammin’ to what the Whammer is whammin’?» «Let’s wham this thing!»
    • Villainous Crossdresser: Mr. Big disguises himself as an elderly woman in episodes «Big Business» and «WordGirl Makes a Mistake».
    • Villainous Crush: And the Fandom won’t let you forget it.
    • Villains Out Shopping: Variation — in «Becky’s Birthday,» WordGirl, while confronting another villain, encounters Dr. Two-Brains, who’s just made a trip to the grocery store. He may steal cheese, but he buys the crackers he puts the cheese on.
      • In another episode Becky runs into Tobey when they’re both shopping with their mothers. Who were taking forever, incidentally!
    • Villain Team-Up: Featured in, «Mousezilla». Tobey and Dr. Two Brains build a giant robotic mouse. Although it definitely starts out well, the team-up breaks down when they argue about what they should do the trapped WordGirl.
      • Also in «Too Loud Crew».
      • In «The Fill-In,» The Butcher shows up as a temporary fill-in for Dr. Two Brains’s henchman, Charlie. Dr. Two Brains tells him that he’s too good to be just a temporary fill-in and tries to insist on one of these instead, but The Butcher turns him down flat because «they never work» and even tells him «It’s Not You, It’s Me.» He later jets in the middle of a robbery when Charlie returns.
      • Chuck teamed up with Nocan in «Nocan the Ingredient Finding Guy» and it worked out about as well as his team-ups with the Whammer.
      • In the first issue of the comic book tie in, five of Wordgirl’s villains form «The Coalition of Malice.»
    • Visual Innuendo: [From the episode Highway to Havarti.] Dr. Two Brains crotch-level ‘cactus’ while he’s waiting in the gas station check-out. (This could be an Accidental Innuendo, but this troper is inclined to think it was intentional.)
    • We’ll See About That: Mrs. Botsford says this two Dr. Two Brains when he says that he and his henchmen will win the soccer game in «Bend it Like Becky.»
      • Chuck also uses it on WordGirl in «Chuck With a Side of Brent» when she tells him «It’s over!»
    • We Used to Be Friends: WordGirl and Dr. Boxleitner used to be friends until he transformed into the evil Dr. Two Brains.
    • What Could Have Been: The producers actually wanted Reese Witherspoon to voice WordGirl.
    • What Does Becky See In Scoops?: I mean, seriously! Once he guessed Becky’s secret identity as WordGirl, he didn’t care about her actual feelings, he just wanted to take his kid-reporter career to the next level. Fortunately, Becky frustrated his desires by losing the Vocab-bee contest on propose, thus keeping her secret safe.
    • What Happened to the Mouse??: Literally in «Mouse Army», when Dr. TwoBrains creates an army of super-intelligent mice, they are all reverted to normal in the end…except for one, but we never hear of it again.
      • In the episode «Birthday Town», Mr. Botsford is watching TV and the mouse is seen in the news. The mouse seems to further its career in science and is shown that he fused a cat and dog’s minds together.
      • Mouse-Zilla is shown to have survived WordGirl throwing it into a lake, but it never returns as well.
    • What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Tobey’s robots are the only enemies WordGirl is ever seen punching and kicking. Every other villain she usually just finds some way to subdue or tie up.
      • Also Lady Redundant Woman’s copies get destroyed right and left, yet in «The Young And The Meatless» and even «Lady Redundant Woman Gets The Blues», it’s implied that the copies have separate personalities and even feelings. Dupey doesn’t get turned back into paper in «The Young And The Meatless», most likely because she is actually shown to experience love.
    • What the Hell, Townspeople?: The many residents in Fair City can go from idolizing their hero to hating her guts in as long as it takes Granny May to get out of prison.
    • Where The Hell Is Fair City?
    • Why Did It Have To Be Cats?: Since he has a second mouse brain, Dr. Two Brains is very afraid of cats. This fear comes up in a couple episodes, sometimes even showing cats attacking him because he’s part mouse.
    • Wild Hair: Two Brains did say he sported the dry look…
    • Wonderful Life: «A World Without WordGirl».
    • You Are Grounded
    • You Get Me Coffee: In «Chuck With a Side of Brent,» Chuck’s brother Brent resurfaces and apologizes for having been such a bad sidekick to Chuck and begging for another chance. Chuck reluctantly agrees and asks him if he promises to do every evil and villainous thing he tells him. Brent agrees and Chuck tells him «You can start by picking up my dry-cleaning. Oh, and I have some ironing I need done too.»
    • Your Costume Needs Work: TJ consistently tells his sister that her WordGirl impersonation isn’t very good.

    Источник

    https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/wordgirl.png

    WordGirl and her sidekick, Captain Huggyface.

    «From the planet Lexicon; watch out, villains, HERE SHE COMES!»

    WordGirl is an animated television show on PBS. The titular character is a superheroine who fights crime with her powers of literacy as well as her powers as a Flying Brick. The show is an Affectionate Parody of the superhero genre and uses writers from sketch comedy shows like Saturday Night Live, plus actors known for ad-libbing ability, in hopes of making a show as entertaining for adults as it is educational for kids.

    WordGirl uses her great vocabulary to fend off villains such as The Butcher, Dr. Two-Brains, Granny May, Tobey, and Chuck The Evil Sandwich-Making Guy. She never reveals her alter-ego to anyone, including her own family. She and Huggy use their crashed spaceship as a secret hideout.

    The series ended with the two-part episode «Rhyme and Reason», which was released online on August 7, 2015. A comic book adaptation was published by KaBOOM! Comics.

    See also the character sheet and the episode recaps.

    The show provides examples of:

        open/close all folders 

        Tropes #-L 

    • 11th-Hour Superpower: Subverted. When Miss Power takes over Fair City, intending eventual world domination, Captain Huggyface takes WordGirl to a Lexiconian lair which holds their tome of «Super-Advanced Secret Battle Rules». While the local villains rampage against Miss Power, WordGirl gets a montage of devouring the whole book. However, after all the build-up, when WordGirl shows up for the showdown, she doesn’t have any new superpowers, but she has the power of knowledge. WordGirl knows that Miss Power doesn’t have any powers, neither superhuman nor ordinary, as long as other people are happy with themselves. This time, when Miss Power begins showering vitriol at her and the villains’ way, WordGirl doesn’t stand for it and begins lifting everyone up. Left powerless, Miss Power and Colonel Gigglecheeks are forced to flee. The world is saved.
    • Accent Relapse: Guy Rich speaks with a Southern accent until he reveals himself to be an ordinary person, not the affluent man he lead everyone to believe he was.
    • Accidental Misnaming:
      • Many characters have mistaken Captain HuggyFace’s name for something like «Captain Hoozywinks» or «Colonel HairyFace».
      • The Whammer can never get Chuck the Evil Sandwich-Making Guy’s name right.
    • Adults Are Useless: It’s a kids’ show. Surprised?
      • Averted with some of the villains.
      • Becky’s parents also seem to be getting smarter and more useful throughout the show, as both show off the ability to outwit villains when needed.
      • Becky’s Grandpa Bampy can defeat a giant robot with just a screwdriver!
    • An Aesop: «The Rise Of Miss Power» has quite a few:
      • Words have a lot more power than you think they do, so be very careful with how you use them.
      • «Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me» is a load of bull.
      • If bullies really are as superior as they want you to believe, they wouldn’t have to stand on the self-worth of others to feel tall. If they can’t put other people down, then bullies have no confidence at all.
      • Having power does not entitle you to use it however you want. «But I’m the good guy, and the people I have power over are the bad guys!» isn’t an excuse, because if you use your power to do more harm than good, can you really consider yourself a «good guy»?
    • A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Inverted. Tobey’s Mecha-Mooks occasionally refuse to obey him, sometimes even turning against him. Notable in particular with his WordBot in the episode by the same name, which he programmed to be «devoted» (one of the words of the day) to him, only for it to turn against him when he keeps paying too much attention to WordGirl and decide to be devoted to destruction instead.
    • All Your Powers Combined: When Victoria Best steals most of the other villains’ powers in «Don’t Mess With The Best».
    • Alliterative Name: Besides the characters important enough to be on the Characters page, we have Bampy Botsford and Hal Hardbargain.
    • Always Someone Better: Steve McClean’s appearance has him like this to Dr. Two-Brains, taking away all his popularity.
    • Ambiguously Brown: The Botsford family.
    • Ambiguous Time Period: The producers wanted it to look like it could have been made in the 60s, 80s, or today. No internet, no home computers (the only computers seen take up almost half the room), small corner TVs, a few passing references to home video, and the journalist wannabe works at a newspaper a la Jimmy Olsen. Even the family car looks like a station wagon from the 70s. They claimed if cell phones were ever used, they would’ve been bulky devices circa 1995.
    • Arc Words: Every episode has two (or four in the case of two-part episodes), which are the words that the episode is teaching. In each case, WordGirl will define the words at some point in the episode.
    • Armor-Piercing Response: Bob finds himself on the receiving end of this in «The Rise of Miss Power» when he makes his disdain for Miss Power’s methods clear to Becky, only for her to tell him that she doesn’t care what he thinks and that «You’re just the sidekick». The look on his face after hearing this is heartbreaking, to say the least.
    • Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Tobey’s gigantic Mecha-Mooks.
    • Attack Pattern Alpha: WordGirl’s «Emergency Plans».
    • Badass Boast: When a woman tells Miss Power that Earth doesn’t need her as a new ruler and they have WordGirl, she responds with, «No she can’t. I defeated WordGirl. And now this planet is mine. And if you don’t like that, well, there’s a nice cozy jail cell for you. Just ask District Attorney Botsford.»
    • The Bad Guy Wins: Downplayed example. In «WordGirl and Bobbleboy», TJ’s success in his WordGirl bobblehead dolls business distracts our heroine so much that she gets smashed to the ground by Chuck’s Crusher. Luckily she gets better, but the villain featured for the rest of the episode is Dr. Two-Brains and not Chuck.
    • Bad Mood as an Excuse: What was Tobey’s reasoning/excuse for why he was having one of his robots wreck havoc around town? He was mad he didn’t get invited to Katie’s birthday party.
    • Ballad of X: The episode » The Ballad of Steve McClean».
    • Banana Peel: Captain Huggyface uses one to defeat the Whammer in «Crime in the Key of V».
    • Batman Gambit: A beautiful one by Becky against the titular character in «Victoria Best». To retrieve the trophies Victoria stole from everyone, WordGirl organizes a cracker-eating competition between her and Captain Huggyface. Huggy, being Huggy, wins easily, and his trophy is a golden net. Victoria can’t stand, sit, or lie down with being second-best, so she tries to summon the trophy. She can’t summon it slowly and inconspicuously with her clarinet; her mouth is too dry to play it. In a rage, Victoria summons the net with her eyes, but the speed with which she summons it traps her beneath the net. WordGirl then threatens to keep her there unless she hands everyone’s trophies back, and Victoria is forced to comply.
    • Beard of Sorrow: Doctor Two-Brains gets one when he falls out of the #1 villain ranking.
    • Berserk Button: Some of Tobey’s robots go berserk because of things other characters say or do.
    • Big Red Button:
      • In «Mecha Mouse», Two-Brains is defeated by one of the self-destruct variety, which he put on his well-designed power armor. Also, the button is on the exterior, which Two-Brains can’t touch anyway.
      • Then there’s the «Holy Cow! Don’t Press This Button!» button.
      • And the «Merge With Copier» button.
    • Big Word Shout:

      WordGirl: Change it BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!

    • Bilingual Bonus: In «The Fill-In», the fictional ancient city Santa Palabra means «Saint Word» in English.
    • Big «NO!»: Employed quite a few times in the series.
    • A Birthday, Not a Break:
      • The titular character of «Becky’s Birthday» (as WordGirl) has to fight the Energy Monster despite it being her birthday.
      • The whole premise of the two-part episode «A World Without WordGirl», where Becky gets fed up always having to fight crime repeatedly as WordGirl and miss out on her birthday party.
    • Biting-the-Hand Humor: This is inverted in the short «Play Date». While at Becky’s house, Tobey calls the Botsfords «imbeciles» for having a TV. Beckynote  calls him out for this, saying that she and her family are not idiots because they «only watch PBS.» She gestures to the PBS logo and smiles.
    • Black Comedy: From «Two Brains Quartet»:

      Mayor: Whoa — a dog from the old days! That dog is probably dead now.

    • Blatant Lies: You’d need to be Super Gullible to buy Becky’s many excuses whenever she must change into her superheroine identity. And, fortunately for her, the characters are!
    • Breaking the Fourth Wall: Happens very often, with characters talking to/arguing with the narrator. In «Lunch Lady Chuck», Chuck reaches up out of frame to give the narrator a sandwich.
    • By the Power of Grayskull!: «Worrrrrrd Up!»
    • Calling the Old Man Out: In «Meat My Dad», the Butcher calls out his dad for constantly guilt-tripping/badgering him into moving back in with him and forming a criminal duo together, something the Butcher makes it pretty clear he doesn’t want to do.
    • Cardboard Prison: Being caught and sent to jail never seems to get rid of the villains. Somewhat justified by the fact that the Warden is one of the most staggeringly incompetent characters on a show absolutely stuffed with incompetent characters.
    • Cartoon Cheese: Thanks to Two-Brains’s cheese addiction, there are more examples of this in the show than you can count.
    • Catchphrase: Warden Chalmers has «…I’ll eat my hat!» Made funny by the fact that he actually will eat his hat, and seems to enjoy the taste. He started having them made out of meat after his first one didn’t taste so good.
    • Character in the Logo: Silhouettes of WordGirl and Captain Huggyface are featured in-between the «Word» and «Girl» in the show’s logo.
    • Charlie and the Chocolate Parody: «Who Wants Candy?»
    • Cheaters Never Prosper: Exaggerated in the episode «Two Brains’ Quartet». Dr. Two-Brains doesn’t even try to win legitimately despite multiple protests from his henchmen that they could probably win and cheating is likely to backfire. They end up disqualified, but the henchmen plead to perform anyway, and their song is amazing — the mayor outright states that they probably would have won if they hadn’t already been disqualified for cheating.
    • Clear My Name: WordGirl has had to do this in multiple episodes, notably in «The Wrong Side Of The Law».
    • Cliffhanger: The two-part stories «The Wrong Side of the Law», «WordGirl Makes a Mistake», and «A Better Mousetrap.» It’s one of the featured words in the second half of «A Better Mousetrap», with WordGirl providing the definition.
    • Cliffhanger Copout: At the end of part 1 of «WordGirl Makes a Mistake,» Mr. Big uses the Lexonite to disable WordGirl by clipping a collar around her neck with a star-shaped chunk of it on. No wait, come part 2 a few minutes later, she’s been put in a Lexonite cage instead.
      • Parodied in «Kid Math.» At the end of Part 1, Dr. Two-Brains traps WordGirl and Kid Math in a metal cage.

        Kid Math: Actually, I think I could break out of this pretty easily.

        WordGirl: No! A superhero needs to know how to build suspense so the audience gets excited!

    • Clip Show: «A Better Mousetrap». The first half features WordGirl reminiscing with Scoops about the many times that she’s defeated Dr. Two-Brains. At the end of the first half, Two-Brains takes over the show, then in the second half, he shows a series of clips designed to humiliate WordGirl.
    • Continuity Cavalcade: «Showdown at the Super Secret Spaceship Hideout». Dr. Two-Brains discovers the room where WordGirl keeps mementos of all of her past adventures, including weapons from all of the other villains and a display that has all of the different ray guns Two-Brains has used in the show. The episode even gives a nod to the fact that Dr. Two-Brains once penned the book «Superheroes and You: A Practical Guide».
    • Continuity Nod: In the episode «Tobey’s Masterpiece», Tobey asks Becky the last time he’s seen her and she references the events of the former’s introduction in the arc shorts where he threatened to destroy her house with a robot.
    • Contrived Coincidence: Very, very often with the themed villains. One episode’s plot is even based around lampshading this trope.
    • Cool Old Guy: Bampy, Becky’s grandfather, who is the only non-main character to know her secret identity and can jump and backflip like nobody’s business. He takes down a giant robot with just a screwdriver! Twice!
    • «Could Have Avoided This!» Plot:
      • «Have You Seen The Remote?»: When it turns out Tobey had a tracking device all along.
      • «Line Lessons With Lady Redundant Woman»: When Lady Redundant Woman is told everyone already knows what it’s like to be treated rudely.
      • «WordGirl Makes A Mistake: Part 2»: Both when the handyman has a dictionary and when it turns out Mr. Big already got his casserole dish back.
      • «Mr. Big’s Mini-Golf»: When Mr. Big finds out that Guy Rich wasn’t a villain.
      • «Cleanup In Aisle Eleven»: When Lady Redundant Woman realizes the grocery store manager just wanted money for the food she was taking.
    • Crush Blush: A few times Tobey, a ten-year-old, blushes because of his beloved WordGirl.
    • Cute Kitten:
      • Little Mittens, the cutesy kitten the Butcher finds in «Meat with a Side of Cute». He even invokes this by distracting WordGirl with its cuteness.
    • Cuteness Proximity: Little Mittens, a big-eyed kitten, successfully distracts WordGirl in «Meat with a Side of Cute» with its adorable nature.
    • Cutlass Between the Teeth: Parodied; In «Bampy Battles Bots», Becky�s grandfather recounts defeating a colossal robot while carrying a screwdriver between his teeth.
    • Darker and Edgier: Subverted in «Don’t Mess with the Best». Dr. Two-Brains tells Victoria Best that if she really wants to get rid of WordGirl and prove she’s the best villain, she should push that red button on the back of his cheese ray. Turns out it just sprays Victoria in the face with gunk, causing her to drop it and allowing Dr. Two-Brains to pick it back up.
    • Deathbringer the Adorable: Lil’ Mittens, originally named «Meat Hook».
    • The Dentist Episode: Several characters visit a dentist «WordGirl vs. Tobey vs. The Dentist».
    • Department of Redundancy Department: Many of the characters speak redundantly as a means for the show to indirectly teach kids synonyms. Warden Chalmers gets special mention though.

      Warden Chalmers: Today is a historic day in history, for, on this historic day, history will show that we have indeed made history.

      • And Lady Redundant Woman is literally made of this trope.
    • Disguised in Drag: Mr. Big disguises himself as an elderly woman in episodes «Big Business» and «WordGirl Makes a Mistake».
    • Double Entendre:

      • WordGirl: «Hold it right there, Butch…er?»

      • In «Play Date», we get this fun little exchange:

        Becky: You’re awfully mischievous.
        Tobey: Mischievous! Are you trying to impress me with your vocabulary?
        Becky: I’m not trying to impress anyone.
        Tobey: Why didn’t you just say I’m a naughty boy, hmm?

      • In «Re-Enter, The Butcher», Reginald refers to The Butcher as «smelly wiener man».
      • In «Re-Re-Enter, The Butcher», the Grocery Store Manager tells The Butcher he’ll have to «leave [his] personal meat at home».
    • Do Wrong, Right: The villains have their Villain Code rulebook and get angry when one of them breaks said rules.
    • Drunk with Power: Leslie has a brief moment of this in «Leslie Makes It Big».
    • Early-Installment Weirdness: It took a few episodes for the narrator to start mentioning the associated vocabulary words of the day in the title cards.
    • Edutainment Show: The main purpose of the show is to teach more advanced vocabulary words to children.
    • Empathic Environment: In «Rhyme and Reason», rain begins to pour when Becky and Violet’s friendship, as well as Rhyme and Reason’s, end. Both friendships eventually mend.
    • Enemy Mine:
      • WordGirl joins forces with Dr. Two-Brains in the episodes «Mouse Army» and «Dr. Three-Brains».
      • In «The Rise of Miss Power», all of the show’s villains team up against Miss Power and help WordGirl defeat her.
    • Episode Title Card: Every episode has one. In most episodes, it’s during the title card where the narrator explains what vocabulary words to watch out for.
    • Et Tu, Brute?: After being betrayed by the Learnerer, the Amazing Rope Guy experiences a Villainous Breakdown. Yes, that’s are really what they’re called.
    • Even the Dog Is Ashamed: When Becky’s done something immoral, Bob makes his disappointment visible.
    • Evil Is Angular: So it’s fitting that Miss Power, the villain lineup’s biggest threat, has plenty of triangles in her character design.
    • Evil Is Hammy: Most of the villains are this way.
    • Evil Laugh: Pretty much all of the show’s villains have their own.
    • Explain, Explain… Oh, Crap!:
      • WorldGirl does this to herself at one point. As she’s lecturing the Learnerer about why his Verbal Tic of adding suffixes unnecessarily to words is annoying, it suddenly occurs to her that he said that he had been learning her moves!
      • From «By Jove, You’ve Wrecked My Robot!»:

        Becky: Well, Bob, realize means to figure something out, to understand something. Like how Tobey realizing all those things made him think I’m WordGirl. [screen pans to the right, showing a grinning Tobey] And how I just realized that I probably shouldn’t have defined that word.

    • Face Palm: In one of the episodes of «May I Have a Word?», Phil’s prize for winning the initial game is a life-size Beau Handsome cut-out, which he says he doesn’t want. When he learns that his prize for winning the bonus round is a larger-than-life Beau Handsome cut-out, he facepalms.
    • Fan Boy: Glen is one to Dr. Two-Brains. And an in-universe Ascended Fanboy no less.
    • Female Monster Surprise: The Energy Monster is female and is named Maria.
    • Feud Episode: The titular villains from �Rhyme and Reason� have this when the latter is fed up with the former that he breaks up with her.
    • Finger Gun: The Amazing Rope Guy briefly makes finger guns in «Gift Pony».
    • Flaw Exploitation: The emotional kind. Miss Power targets other characters’ insecurities to Break Them by Talking and she encourages WordGirl to do the same.

      Miss Power: [To WordGirl while training her] Well there’s more to combat than just the physical. For example, how do you think I was able to beat The Butcher so easily?
      WordGirl: Well, by being stronger and faster than him.
      Miss Power: No, well yes, of course, but I was also able to find… his weakness. One of his biggest fears.
      WordGirl: He gets upset if people think he smells bad.
      Miss Power: Exactly.

    • Forgot About His Powers: We see the villains in jail frequently, yet nothing is ever done to stop them from using their superpowers, except in «The Return of the Reprise of Lady Redundant Woman». It’s as if they don’t have powers while in jail.
    • For Halloween, I Am Going as Myself:
      • Implied in «Vocab Bee». When Scoops is starting to suspect Becky is WordGirl, he points out how Becky went as WordGirl for Halloween.
      • Averted in «Tobey’s Tricks and Treats», where Becky goes as Pretty Princess. Instead, her best friend Violet goes as WordGirl.
    • Formally-Named Pet:
      • Granny May’s cat «Colonel Mustard».
      • The other two monkeys in the show — General Smoochington and Colonel Gigglecheeks.
    • Four-Fingered Hands: All human characters — and even the monkey — have four fingers.
    • Freak Lab Accident: Dr. Two-Brains’s origin.
    • «Freaky Friday» Flip: «Dr. WordGirl-Brains» has this happen WordGirl and Dr. Two-Brains. It’s mixed up a bit by the fact that the mouse brain isn’t affected by the mind-swap, meaning that WordGirl in Two-Brains’ body becomes an evil cheese-seeker while Two-Brains in WordGirl’s body doesn’t feel like it anymore and takes on her heroics in the interim.
    • Free-Range Children: Despite Becky’s parents showing protective tendencies, she and all her other classmates frequently get to go anywhere and everywhere in the city without an adult around. Even at school or other adult-supervised events, Becky always manages to sneak away without too much trouble. On a few occasions, Becky has even been kept somewhere overnight or very late into the night, and her parents don’t seem worried in the slightest.
    • Freeze-Frame Bonus: In «Re-Re-Enter, The Butcher», when The Butcher is attempting to rob the grocery store, you can see the sign above the aisle behind him indicates said aisle has chainsaws, crowbars, and zombie-repellent.
    • Friendly Tickle Torture: Meant to be a remedy for Becky’s hiccups in «Word (Hicc)Up!».
    • Games of the Elderly: In the episode «Bonkers For Bingo», Granny May retires from crime and takes up playing bingo, becoming a city bingo champion thanks to a massive streak of luck. It turns out that her «luck» was really as a result of her lucky charm — a magnetic duck, which allowed her to manipulate the metal bingo balls to control which numbers were called.
    • Glad I Thought of It: Mr. Big does this in «Scary with a Side Of Butter» where he takes credit for Leslie’s idea, much to her disappointment.
    • Gray Rain of Depression: Occurs when Becky and Violet’s friendship, as well as Rhyme and Reason’s, end. Both friendships eventually mend.
    • Green Aesop: In «Earth Day Girl», especially during the «cleanup montage», which is so campy and over-the-top that it may be a Stealth Parody.
    • Grumpy Old Man: Scoops’s grandpa. He always has the same frown in all of his appearances.
    • Halloween Episode: «Tobey’s Tricks or Treats».
    • Hand Rubbing: There are times the villains rubs their hands together when in the villainous mood. The Narrator once called one of them (i.e. Tobey) out on it.
    • Height Insult: One of Miss Power’s attempts to break WordGirl by talking involved her telling her she’s «too small». It didn’t work.
    • Hiccup Hijinks: «Word (Hicc)Up!» has Becky/WordGirl get hiccups, which makes it hard for her to fight crime. She’s also not fond of her dad’s methods of curing her. Eventually, she gets cured thanks to Chuck The Evil Sandwich Making Guy, but then she gets hiccups at the end again when her father scares her.
    • High-Class Glass:
      • Reginald the jeweler.
      • Count Cloudy in «The Pretty Princess and Magic Pony Power Hour».
    • Hurl It into the Sun: How WordGirl destroys Mr. Big’s Lexonite machine at the end of «WordGirl makes a Mistake».
    • Hypocritical Humor: Lampshaded in «Earth Day Girl».

      Birthday Girl: The Earth is trying to steal my birthday! It’s giant, green, and spoiled!
      Narrator: Hmmm… you could be describing yourself, Birthday Girl.

    • I Just Want to Be Normal: Becky/WordGirl constantly misses out on fun things due to her obligations as a superhero, leading her to actually wish she was normal in «A World Without Wordgirl».
    • Idiosyncrazy: Almost every single villain has some kind of an absurd gimmick that all of their crimes are themed around. Discussed in «The Young and the Meatless». Lady Redundant Woman and The Butcher keep trying to steal the same things because they are both meat and matching or redundant sets.
    • Impact Silhouette: Used a few times when the larger villains, especially The Whammer or Nocan, enter a building to steal something. Sometimes it’s combined with a There Was a Door.
    • Implied Death Threat: WordGirl physically folds a large bar of steel into a small, crude ball live on broadcast to represent what would happen if the villains were doing any crime. In other words, she literally broadcasts the fact that she allows the villains to live. The best part is that she did this to ensure that she wouldn’t get interrupted while watching her favorite TV show again, because she missed the finale the last time she was busy fighting crime.
    • In Love with Your Carnage: Mr. Big gets excited when he learns that Leslie Took a Level in Badass and nearly took over the city while he was away.
    • Incest Subtext: Becky/WordGirl and TJ. Averted a bit, because technically she’s adopted. She still finds it gross, though. And, to be fair, TJ has no idea that WordGirl is his sister.
    • Inexplicably Identical Individuals: One of the newsmen has the same face as another random townsperson (who wears an orange shirt), but there’s no indication that they’re the same character. Stranger still, both of them have a striking resemblance to Dave, the manager of the copy shop where Beatrice Bixby works.
    • Inkblot Test: Used in «Mobot Knows Best» as a joke rather than to make a statement about any of the characters. Becky’s art project appears to be a Rorschach test that bears considerable resemblance to The Butcher.
    • Insult Backfire: When an overly aggressive WordGirl calls Dr. Two-Brains’s plan stupid, he essentially goes, «And your point?»
    • Intergenerational Friendship:
      • Steven Boxleitner and WordGirl at the beginning of the series.
      • Possibly Exposition Guy and Eileen in «The Birthday Girl’s Monstrous Gift».
    • Interspecies Romance: Whichever shipping you may prefer, any character with WordGirl is this. Even with the most-canon shipping, WordGirl and Scoops, she’s still an alien, which might make things slightly… odd, if there are any signs of a serious relationship.
    • In-Universe Factoid Failure: When Chuck the Evil Sandwich-Making Guy decides to reinvent himself as «The Handsome Panther», it quickly becomes clear that he knows well-nigh nothing about real panthers (e.g. the fact they’re nocturnal).
    • It’s a Wonderful Plot: «A World Without WordGirl» is about Becky wishing WordGirl never existed as her birthday wish and being transported to an alternate universe where Chuck dominates the city as a result of WordGirl not being there to stop him.
    • It’s Been Done: In «Mr. Big Words», the reason that Mr. Big makes the entire town speak in only big words is so that he can make a profit off his new product — a book he’s invented that gives them the definitions of those big words. WordGirl is quick to point out that Mr. Big just created a dictionary, which he had no idea existed already.
    • Jekyll & Hyde: Dr. Two-Brains is both the selfless, intelligent, and kind Dr. Steven Boxleitner, and the murderous, monomaniac, cheese-obsessed Squeaky. An accident in Dr. Boxleitner’s lab caused them to fuse.
    • Jerkass:
      • The new assistant librarian. He’s more obsessed with fining late books.
      • Dr. Two-Brains’s ex-number one fan Glen Furlblam. After failing to impress his idol, now he wants to outdo him.
    • Kryptonite Factor: In «WordGirl Makes a Mistake»:

      Mr. Big: I don’t get it, Leslie. WordGirl has always dominated me in the past, both in her battle skills as well as her flawless way with words. Something… mmm… fishy is going on around here.
      Leslie: It’s the meteorite, sir. It’s from her home planet — Lexicon. Whenever a superhero comes into contact with a meteorite from their home planet, it takes away their superpowers. Haven’t you ever read a comic book, sir?

    • Lampshade Hanging: The show loves to do this.
    • Left the Background Music On: Whenever The Butcher and Dupey interact, romantic music plays. Everyone wonders where it’s coming from, then a guy apologizes and turns off his boombox.
    • Leitmotif: Many of the characters/villains have their theme music. Not to mention the word-defining music and the melodramatic sadness music, just to name a few…
    • Limited Wardrobe: Lampshaded with both Dr. Two-Brains’s and Becky’s wardrobes.
    • Living Prop: A large number of the townspeople and pretty much all of Becky’s classmates who aren’t Violet, Tobey, Scoops, Victoria, or Eileen.
    • Locked Out of the Loop: Anyone who isn’t Captain Huggyface, to Becky’s identity as WordGirl. Not even her adoptive family is aware.
    • Loony Fan: A bit of a spin with Glen, who emulates (until he decides to replace) his hero, Dr. Two-Brains… who happens to be a villain.
    • Love Triangle: The two main romances of the show form a triangle. Tobey crushes on WordGirl, who doesn’t like him, while she crushes on Scoops, who doesn’t seem to notice.

        Tropes M-Y 

    • Made-for-TV Movie: «The Rise of Miss Power», which premiered on February 20, 2012.
    • The Man Behind the Man: Mr. Big to Chuck in «Bongo Rock».
    • Meaningful Name: The Butcher’s the «Butcher» because a butcher deals with meat, and he can summon any meat with his bare hands, and the «Butcher» because butchering something is spoiling it by dealing with very badly, and he is a criminal who spoils the days of people.
    • Meaningless Villain Victory: In «Mr. Big Words», every step of Mr. Big’s plan works perfectly right up to the very end. Once his victory has been assured, he reveals his ultimate goal to WordGirl: force people to talk with Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness and sell a book of large words and their definitions so they can understand each other, making millions in the process. When it’s pointed out to him that dictionaries exist, he becomes disheartened and willingly lets WordGirl destroy his machine.
    • Medium Awareness: At one point, Becky gives a thumbs up and winks at the camera. One of her friends then asks her who she’s winking at.
    • Memetic Mutation: In-universe: In «Yes Monkey», Mr. Big calls Captain Huggyface a «chipmunk», which causes WordGirl to later refer to him as a «chip monkey».
    • Mind-Control Eyes: Anyone under the influence of either Mr. Big’s mind control or Victoria Best’s hypnotic recorder will show these (glowing green spiral eyes for the former, purple circles for the latter).
    • Minion with an F in Evil: At one point Granny May attempts to enlist the help of her hulking grandson Eugene, although this is foiled by Violet when she caters to his timid nature.
    • Misleading Package Size: In one episode, Becky receives a Pretty Princess and Magic Pony Power Hour toy in the mail. The toy itself is pretty small, but it comes in a package bigger than even Becky herself.
    • Mocking Sing-Song: In «Tobey’s Masterpiece», Tobey sings «I defeated WordGirl» a couple of times to the tune of «Ring Around the Rosie» when he thinks he finally did just that.
    • Mood Whiplash: Among other examples, in «The Young And The Meatless», the viewers go from being amused to being sad to be amused again in the ending. Even The Butcher himself temporarily stops being distraught just so he can find out what a word means.
    • Monster Fangirl: One episode reveals Tobey has a fangirl who adores him and is aware of his villainy.
    • The Movie: «The Rise of Miss Power» is a special four-part episode that’s marketed as a movie.
    • Multi-Part Episode: «The Rise of Miss Power» is billed as a Made-for-TV Movie, but is technically a two-part episode (four parts if you count the Two Shorts in both parts as separate episodes).
    • Mundane Utility:
      • Tobey’s artistically gifted robot, as well as his minor-do-gooding robot in «Tobey, Goes Good».
      • WordGirl uses her super-speed to clean her room in «Super-Grounded».
    • My God, What Have I Done?: Becky has a moment of this after she wishes that WordGirl never existed, not knowing that the birthday cake was enchanted due to the Energy Monster’s overload.
    • Name McAdjective: Steve McClean, a one-off villain from the episode «The Ballad of Steve McClean».
    • Never My Fault: When a group of rightfully pissed-off super villains asks Mr. Big why he hypnotized his allies just to build him a miniature golf course, his justification for his actions is to blame Guy Rich (a villain who faked being richer than him). As he puts it, if Guy Rich hadn’t shown up to brag, none of what happened would’ve happened.
    • Never Say «Die»: Becky is almost «done for», «finished off», told «good-bye» by a villain preparing to crush her with a giant robot, and we’re often told it could be «the end» for WordGirl. Since the main character is 10 and the target audience is not quite that age, we’re never told she’s going to be killed by the few dangerous bad guys.
    • Nightmare Fuel Coloring Book: Tobey has one of these in the episode «Cherish is the Word» — he draws Valentine’s Day card for WordGirl picturing him holding hands with her and a robot ready to destroy her in the background (the robot happens to be dressed like Cupid and is aiming its bow and arrow).
    • No Communities Were Harmed: Fair City is based on Boston. The city’s park is modeled after the Boston Public Garden, the baseball stadium resembles Fenway Park, and the subway system resembles The T. The show’s animation studio, Soup2Nuts, was headquartered in the Boston area.
    • Not a Date: «Have You Seen the Remote?», is a fine example. (On WordGirl’s part, at least.) Because we all know that the most efficient way to search for something is to go to the park and eat ice cream.
    • Not Allowed to Grow Up: None of the characters seem to age. Becky herself has two birthdays in the show, yet she still seems to be a ten-year-old fifth-grader.
    • Not Me This Time: In «What A Tangled Knot You Tie, Amazing Rope Guy» many of the other criminals go to jail, despite declaring their innocence, because The Amazing Rope Guy impersonates their identities and crimes.
    • No Smoking: Borderline averted in one episode, where Becky’s Muggle dad uses a cigarette lighter to light a candle on a magic cupcake. It’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment, but even that’s pretty envelope-pushing for PBS.
    • Not-So-Innocent Whistle: Becky’s dad does this once, and Hal Hardbargain does it in «Rat Trap».
    • Not Where They Thought: A Running Gag is one character (dubbed Exposition Guy) running to wherever Becky happens to be and screaming about the newest crime taking place. He then asks, «Is this the police station?» and runs elsewhere once the characters inform him that it’s not. This cues Becky to transform into WordGirl.
    • Oh, Crap!: Dr. Boxleitner gives this expression when Squeaky presses the red button that causes the experiment to read his mind to turn the two into Dr. Two-Brains.
    • Oh Wait, This Is My Grocery List: In «Yes Monkey», the Mayor does this when he pulls out the wrong note card for a prepared speech in presenting yet another key to the city to WordGirl and Captain Huggyface.
    • Once per Episode: The vocabulary words, which are noted during the Episode Title Card.
    • One-Steve Limit: While most of the characters, villains or not, have nicknames, this trope is true for the most part. However, it’s subverted in «The Ballad of Steve McClean», most likely for subtle comedic effect in that Steve McClean takes Dr. Two-Brains’s Number 1 spot on the Top Villains List, and Dr. Two-Brains’s original human name was Steven Boxleitner. Fair City isn’t big enough for two villains named Steve! After this episode, there is, quite literally, only one Steve because McClean, while showing up for silent background cameos, is never mentioned again.
    • Onion Tears: It’s shown in one episode that Raul Demiglasse, a chef who challenged others’ cooking skills on his TV show, used onion flakes to make his opponents cry.
    • Opposing Sports Team: Dr. Two-Brains’s soccer team «The Cheese-Eaters», who rival Becky’s team «The Butterfly-Unicorn-Laser-Gorillas» in the episode «Bend It Like Becky».
    • …Or So I Heard: Becky pulls quite a few of these after accidentally saying something that she’d only know if she was WordGirl, nearly informing others of her secret.
    • Out-of-Character Alert:
      • In «What A Tangled Knot You Tie, Amazing Rope Guy» when The Amazing Rope Guy is impersonating Chuck and accidentally says that he doesn’t like sandwiches that much.
      • Glen Furlblam pretends to be Dr. Two-Brains, but he lacks Dr. Two-Brains’s vocabulary knowledge and doesn’t know that melted cheese is called «fondue».
    • Paper-Thin Disguise:
      • The Butcher in «Ch-ch-ch-changes Day», wearing nothing but a fake mustache.
      • In «Oh What a Tangled Knot You Tie, Amazing Rope Guy», the titular villain uses these combined with his impressive skills to pretend to be his fellow villains and commit crimes. Being as stupid as the Populus is, they believe him to be said villain.
      • Subverted in «The Talented Mr. Birg», where WordGirl spends most of the episode harassing Mr. Birg, a man who sounds and looks exactly like Mr. Big but with a fake mustache. It’s later revealed that this man happens to be his doppelganger.
    • Parental Bonus: WordGirl’s home planet is called «Lexicon», a linguistics term that means «vocabulary».
    • Parental Obliviousness: Even aside from WordGirl’s parents missing all the clues about her having superpowers, Tobey’s mom barely seems to notice the clues that he’s getting into trouble, and Eileen’s mom has never even appeared (though she’s been mentioned), despite her daughter frequently rampaging through the city and destroying things. Even Violet’s mom, for another example, is never present when Violet gets involved with the crime or danger (as in «Becky And The Bard»).
    • The Password Is Always «Swordfish»: In the episode «Lunch Lady Chuck», Chuck threatens to demolish the whole school with a giant sandwich press, and the only way to stop it is with the password… that he forgot. WordGirl spends half the episode frantically scouring everywhere Chuck went during the day to try to figure out the password, to no avail… until Chuck remembers, just in time, the password was «password».
    • Perfectly Cromulent Word: Both «unsmall» and «forgerific» have been used and they’re both made-up words.
    • Perplexing Plurals: Several characters struggle with the plural of the word «thesaurus» in «I Think I’m A Clone Now».
    • Perpetual Frowner: Scoop’s grandpa. Even when he’s mind-controlled. And he’s not even worried when the villains attack.
    • Photo-Booth Montage: From the episode «Theme Park WHAM-page».
    • Picky Eater: Chuck’s boss in «Chuck the Nice Pencil-Selling Guy» hates all sandwiches except grilled cheese.
    • Playing a Tree: Scoops gets cast as a wall in the school play. It’s an interesting twist, considering he saves the play when the other characters are off dealing with villains by narrating it himself.
    • Police Are Useless: Because if they were actually at all useful, then WordGirl wouldn’t have nearly as much to do. Lampshaded pretty blatantly in «Ch-ch-ch-change Day». Becky and Bob are trapped by the Butcher in a bank vault surrounded by customers and are unable to transform into WordGirl and Captain Huggyface. Pressed for options, Becky suggests with a tone of hopelessness that maybe the police will solve the problem. Outside the bank, one of the police officers asks the chief for direction and he is forced to admit that he doesn’t know what to do because normally WordGirl would have solved the problem by now.
    • Poke the Poodle: The titular villain of «Chuck!» seems to think washing your face with hand soap (which he’s done) is Beyond Redemption-worthy. Ditto with him going outside on a hot day shoeless and then briefly walking on the cement before jumping onto nearby grass.
    • Power Incontinence: In �A Little Bigger WordGirl�, WordGirl is accidentally made bigger by Dr. Two-Brains� Shrink Ray and ends up being unable to control her powers. She practices obtaining better control at her larger size, though she still tends to stumble about.
    • Punny Name:
      • Ms. Libri and Ms. Dewey, who own a book store and manage a library respectively, among many others, like Hunter Throbheart, Hal Hardbargain, Sonny Days, Guy Rich…
      • The Butcher’s the «Butcher» because a butcher deals with meat, and he can summon any meat with his bare hands, and the «Butcher» because butchering something is spoiling it by dealing with very badly, and he is a criminal who spoils the days of people. And as WordGirl points out, he also butchers the English language with his frequent Buffy Speak.
    • Put on a Prison Bus: Many episodes end with one or more police officers walking into the scene and leading off the villain of the day after their latest scheme is foiled.
    • «Rashomon»-Style: «A Hero, a Thief, a Store, and its Owner» has the events of a robbery told from the perspectives of Reginald, Chuck, and WordGirl, with each story being wildly different. The narrator confirms that WordGirl’s account was the closest to the truth.
    • Reading the Stage Directions Out Loud: In «Wham Up»:

      The Mayor: All by assisting the city’s favorite superhero, Smile and put hands up… Uh, what? (Aside) You should have put it in parentheses.

    • «The Reason You Suck» Speech: Miss Power’s speech to WordGirl, and, to a lesser extent, how she talks to everyone. Gal loves to Break Them by Talking.
    • Recap Episode: «A Better Mousetrap» is spent showing various clips from many of the previous episodes, mostly centering around WordGirl’s dealings with Dr. Two-Brains.
    • Rejection Affection: It appears that, regardless of what Tobey does, WordGirl will never love him back.
    • Ret-Gone: After missing much of her birthday party due to having to stop crime as WordGirl, Becky wishes that WordGirl never existed. She finds herself in an alternate reality where Chuck the Evil Sandwich-Making Guy rules the city due to there being no superhero to stop him. Becky also loses the ability to transform into WordGirl, because WordGirl technically doesn’t exist anymore. In the end, she undoes her wish and restores the original reality.
    • Revenge of the Sequel: Parodied. Lady Redundant Woman’s second focus episode is called «Return of the Reprise of Lady Redundant Woman», a joke about how said character is themed around being redundant.
    • The Rivals: The Ming family are rivals to the Botsford’s.
    • Roger Rabbit Effect: Used in this interview with WordGirl.
    • Samaritan Syndrome: Causes Becky’s frustration in «A World without WordGirl». It doesn’t help that Bob and the narrator are there to railroad her into saving the day.
    • Saying Too Much: In «By Jove, You’ve Wrecked My Robot!», Tobey catches himself a bit too late when his list of reasons why Becky is similar to WordGirl starts heading into romantic territory.
    • Secret Identity: Becky has to keep her identity as WordGirl a secret from everyone; even her adoptive family doesn’t know her true heritage.
    • Sampling: In one episode, a BGM track samples the drums from Daft Punk’s Da Funk.
    • Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness:
      • One episode features a villain inducing this in people to sell dictionaries.
      • The Walk And Talk WordGirl doll also uses this, when she’s not outright using made-up words or using them incorrectly.
    • Shaped Like Itself:

      Beatrice Bixby: He’s just lucky that my thirty-minute lunch break is only a half-hour long.

    • She Is Not My Girlfriend: Despite how painfully obvious it is that he’s lying, Tobey will adamantly deny having a crush on WordGirl whenever someone points it out.
    • Ship Tease:
      • Violet has some with Scoops.
      • Scoops gets some with Becky once he learns of her Secret Identity, because sharing the secret brings them closer together.
    • Shoehorned First Letter: In «Art in the Park», Violet states that the «three P’s» needed for her and Becky’s performance are paintings, poetry, and… «music».
    • Shout-Out: Has its own page.
    • Show Within a Show:
      • A variation: The WordGirl episodes are followed by a segment featuring a Game Show that stars its characters (and Captain Huggyface). Like the main segment they’re intended to teach the meaning of words to the audience.
      • There’s also the Pretty Princess and Magic Pony Power Hour. The special «The Rise of Miss Power» lets viewers watch an episode of it during the interstitials.
    • Shut Up, Hannibal!: During her final encounter with WordGirl, Miss Power tries to Break Her By Talking several times, but to no avail.

      Miss Power: You’re too small.
      WordGirl: I’ll grow.
      Miss Power: You’re too weak.
      WordGirl: I’ll get stronger.
      Miss Power: You don’t have the guts!
      WordGirl: I’m here, aren’t I?
      Miss Power: […] Well I think you’re a loser! I think you’re a failure.
      WordGirl: Really? Because from where I’m standing, [she clicks her tongue] it looks like I’m winning.

    • Shut Up, Kirk!: Before her final «fight» with her, WordGirl gives Miss Power some heroic speech, and the latter responds via saying it was garbage.
    • Sick Episode: «Chuck E. Sneeze» has WordGirl come down with a cold, but still goes out to try and fight Chuck. He tries to steer clear of her but catches her cold when she sneezes on him. Bitter that he can’t taste sandwiches, he buys a giant nose to blow people away from the deli so they can’t have sandwiches either. He and WordGirl try to fight, but they’re way too sick to concentrate. Fittingly, the episode’s featured words are «avoid» and «contagious» (i.e., Chuck tries and fails to avoid WordGirl’s contagious cold).
    • A Simple Plan: The plot of the appropriately titled «A Simple Plan» is Dr. Two-Brains trying to pull one off, only for his Complexity Addiction to get in the way.
    • Skyward Scream: The Butcher provides a prime example of this in «The Young and the Meatless».
    • Solid Clouds: In «The Rise of Miss Power, Part 3», the episode starts with WordGirl discussing her frustrations to Miss Power while they are both sitting on clouds.
    • Something Only They Would Say:
      • Becky frequently says things that only WordGirl would say and vice-versa, nearly revealing her identity.
      • From «Mobot Knows Best»:

        Becky: Why did you write «Robots forever»?
        Tobey: You wouldn’t understand.

    • Spelling for Emphasis: While referring to herself and discussing how she’s gonna take down WordGirl, Victoria spells out the word «best» in «Don’t Mess with the Best».
    • Spinoff: WordGirl started as a series of shorts that appeared after Maya & Miguel.
    • Spiritual Successor: The premise is similar to The Electric Company (1971)‘s short «Letterman» segments, and the Electric Company comics had yet another hero named WonderWord.
    • Spit Take: Becky and Violet do this in «Mount Rush here» after trying coffee for the first time and hating it.
    • Spiteful Spoiler: In the episode «Princess Triana and the Ogre of Castlebum,» Tobey steals the titular book on the night of its release and threatens to reveal the ending to WordGirl, a big fan of the series, if she tries to stop him.
    • Spoiler Title: At the beginning of «Two-Brains Forgets», Dr. Two-Brains discovers WordGirl’s secret identity as Becky Botsford. Guess what happens at the end of the episode…
    • Spoonerism: In «WordGirl Makes a Mistake», the Lexonite meteor that lands in the city cause WordGirl to become weak and keep messing up her vocabulary. One such instance is her mixing up the letters in «My knees are a little weak», which comes out as «My wheels are a little sneak» instead.
    • Status Quo Is God: Averted in «Invasion of The Bunny Lovers». Scoops learns WordGirl’s secret identity and promises to keep it a secret, defying both his own reporter’s instincts and the long-running tendency of wiping the memories of anyone who learns WordGirl’s identity. Followed up in «News Girl», where the school paper’s new Intrepid Reporter Rose captures Becky’s transformation on tape and presents it to Scoops, but he convinces her to keep it a secret.
    • Stealth Pun:
      • In «Answer All My Questions and Win Stuff», Captain Huggyface tries to grab Seymour Orlando Smooth, but keeps sliding down his body, as if he were unusually smooth.
      • The Butcher’s the «Butcher» because a butcher deals with meat, and he can summon any meat with his bare hands, and the «Butcher» because butchering something is spoiling it by dealing with very badly, and he is a criminal who spoils the days of people.
    • Sucks at Dancing: Becky’s idea of dancing is pumping her arms up and down while awkwardly shimmying◊. She’s done this as Becky and WordGirl, which still doesn’t compromise her secret identity.

      WordGirl: Let’s face the music and dance!
      [WordGirl dances]
      Narrator: Oh, my…
      [Huggyface winces]
      Narrator: [softly] Stop.

    • Suspiciously Specific Denial:
      • «Hi! I’m NOT The Butcher!»
      • Also commonly employed during Becky’s Blatant Lies.
    • Sweet Tooth: Many of the characters are shown loving dessert, often eating too much at once (e.g. Mr. Botsford, The Whammer, etc.).
    • Take a Third Option: In «Change Day», Becky and Bob are trapped in a bank vault and faced with either letting The Butcher get away with bank robbery or revealing their secret identities as WordGirl and Huggyface to everyone. They take the third option by tricking The Butcher into opening the vault.
    • Talking in Your Sleep: Dr. Two-Brains is guilty of this in the episode «Showdown at the Super Secret Spaceship Hideout».
    • Talking Is a Free Action: Once an Episode, WordGirl has to define the word of the day, and often the opportunity comes up during the climax. Even when she’s in the middle of a battle, she’ll have enough time to eloquently explain what the word means without the villain taking a hit.
    • Talking to Themself: This has happened many times, like in the short «Mouse Trap» when Dr. Two-Brains argues with his former self, Steven Boxleitner, or when he rebukes TJ in «The Homerun King».
    • Tangled Family Tree: Three instances show in the kids’ family trees for a school project in one episode.
      • Todd’s parents are brother and sister.
      • Violet’s dad is also her mother’s brother.
      • A «Botsford» ancestor (on Tim’s side of the family) looking like Sally.
    • The Teaser: Normally not used, but seen before the title theme in «The Rise of Miss Power» to introduce Miss Power.
    • Techno Babble: Occasionally used by Tobey and Dr. Two-Brains, like this example from «Summertime»:

      Tobey: Like I have the time to explain the intricacies of alarm-block-based quantum mechanics to an aggravating nuisance like you.

    • Tempting Fate: At the end of «By Jove, You’ve Wrecked My Robot!», when Mrs. Botsford tells Tobey he’s in big trouble, he scoffs at her and tells her she isn’t his mother. Cue the sudden arrival of Mrs. McCallister, complete with ominous lightning flashes.
    • Thanksgiving Episode: «Guess Who’s Coming To Thanksgiving Dinner».
    • That Cloud Looks Like…: Done at the end of «Living in the Granny’s Paradise».
    • Thick-Line Animation: It’s the page image. What do you expect? All the characters are animated with rather thick and bold lines.
    • Thinker Pose: «Seeds of Doubt» features a famous statue called The Ponderer.
    • This Is Gonna Suck: Prof. Boxleitner’s reaction when Squeaky is about to push the «Holy Cow! Don’t Press This Button!» button.

      Prof. Boxleitner: Oh boy. This is gonna sting.

    • Thou Shalt Not Kill: WordGirl doesn’t kill or even harm any villain she’s up against (save for Tobey’s robots and Lady Redundant Woman’s copies). No surprise considering it’s a family show.
    • Tooth Strip: Every character has undivided strips of teeth.
    • Trademark Favorite Food: Snappy Snaps for the Botsford’s and the city in general (it seems to be their default cereal).
    • Training Montage: Quite a few episodes have some type of this, usually lampshaded. Examples include «Monkey-Robot Showdown», «I Think I’m a Clone Now», and «Earth Day Girl».
    • Treehouse of Fun: TJ and Becky have one, usually used to hold the WordGirl Fan Club meetings.
    • Underestimating Badassery: Unsurprisingly for someone as arrogant as Tobey, he dismisses Miss Power (who’s a powerful fighter) as a mere «helper» for WordGirl. That didn’t end well…
    • Undesirable Prize: The prizes on the «May I Have a Word?» game show segments are almost inevitably some form of this.
    • Unishment: In «House Arrest», Chuck the Evil Sandwich-Making Guy is placed under house arrest at the Botsfords’ residence while his jail cell is being repainted. He enjoys the way Mrs. Botsford is treating him as a guest enough that when he’s free to go, he deliberately commits crimes in an attempt to get arrested and go back to the house.
    • Valentine’s Day Episode: «Cherish is the Word».
    • Verbal Tic: Mrs. Botsford typically can’t speak a sentence without bursting into laughter some point midway.
    • Verbing Nouny: The episode «Judging Butcher» uses this naming convention.
    • Villains Out Shopping: In «Department Store Tobey», Becky runs into Tobey when they’re both shopping with their parents. Who is taking forever, incidentally!
    • Villain Team-Up:
      • Featured in, «Mousezilla». Tobey and Dr. Two Brains build a giant robotic mouse. Although it starts well, the team-up breaks down when they argue about what they should do with the trapped WordGirl.
      • «Too Loud Crew».
      • In «The Fill-In», The Butcher shows up as a temporary fill-in for Dr. Two-Brains’s henchman, Charlie. Dr. Two-Brains tells him that he’s too good to be just a temporary fill-in and tries to insist on one of these instead, but The Butcher turns him down flat because «they never work» and even tells him «It’s Not You, It’s Me». He later jets in the middle of a robbery when Charlie returns.
      • Chuck teams up with Nocan in «Nocan the Ingredient Finding Guy», and it works out about as well as his team-ups with the Whammer.
    • Villain with Good Publicity: Steve McClean has swarms of fans in his episode, despite being a known criminal.
    • The Voiceless: Scoops’s grandpa hasn’t said a single word. If he did, it probably wouldn’t be anything nice judging by the look of his perpetual frown.
    • The War Room: Fair City has one, as shown in «Scary with a Side of Butter». Among them are the Mayor, the Police Commissioner, and Brent the Handsome Successful Everybody-Loves-Him Sandwich-Making Guy.
    • We Can Rule Together: In «The Rise of Miss Power», Miss Power tries this with WordGirl until she gets wise.
    • We Interrupt This Program/This Just In!: Virtually every time Becky sits down to watch TV. It’s used as a plot device for her to find out when and where villains are causing trouble.
    • We Used to Be Friends: WordGirl and Dr. Boxleitner used to be friends until he transformed into the evil Dr. Two-Brains.
    • We’ll See About That:
      • Mrs. Botsford says this to Dr. Two-Brains when he says that he and his henchmen will win the soccer game in «Bend it Like Becky».
      • Chuck also uses it on WordGirl in «Chuck With a Side of Brent» when she tells him «It’s over!»
      • TJ uses it in «Dinner or Consequences» when Becky wants to use a family trial to prove her innocence and get out of being «mega-grounded».
    • What Happened to the Mouse?:
      • Literally in «Mouse Army». When Dr. Two-Brains creates an army of super-intelligent mice, they are all reverted to normal in the end… except for one, but we never hear of it again. In the episode «Birthday Town», Mr. Botsford is watching TV and the mouse is seen in the news. It seems to have furthered its career in science and fused a cat and dog’s minds.
      • Mouse-Zilla is shown to have survived WordGirl throwing it into a lake, but it never returns as well.
    • What Measure Is a Non-Human?:
      • Tobey’s robots are the only enemies WordGirl is ever seen punching and kicking. Every other villain usually just finds some way to subdue or tie up. She’s even hurled them into the sun as they cry, «Noooooooooooooo…!»
      • Lady Redundant Woman’s copies get destroyed right and left, yet in «The Young And The Meatless» and even «Lady Redundant Woman Gets The Blues», it’s implied that the copies have separate personalities and even feelings. Dupey doesn’t get turned back into paper in «The Young And The Meatless», most likely because she is shown to experience love.
    • White Flag: When WordGirl has been falsely jailed, it’s up to Captain HuggyFace to stop every single villain WordGirl’s ever faced going on a rampage all at once. While a capable crime-fighter, this proves to be too much for the good captain and he soon gives in by waving a white flag.
    • Would Rather Suffer: More precisely, Tobey would rather face his mother’s wrath (despite being scared of it) than get his cavity filled in in «WordGirl vs. Tobey vs. The Dentist».
    • You Are Grounded!: In «Super-Grounded» and the two-parter «Dinner or Consequences», Becky (a child) experiences this. Special note, however, goes to the latter in which she gets «mega-grounded» after missing two of her father’s special dinners. This means that not only does she get sent to her room, but her room has been wiped off all her favorite things and she’s not allowed to go anywhere or do anything fun.
    • You, Get Me Coffee: In «Chuck With a Side of Brent», Chuck’s brother Brent resurfaces and apologizes for having been such a bad sidekick to Chuck and begging for another chance. Chuck reluctantly agrees and asks him if he promises to do every evil and villainous thing he tells him. Brent agrees and Chuck tells him «You can start by picking up my dry-cleaning. Oh, and I have some ironing I need to be done too.»
    • Your Costume Needs Work: TJ consistently tells his sister that her WordGirl impersonation isn’t very good.
    • You’re Just Jealous:
      • A couple times Victoria claims the titular heroine is just being jelly of her. In her debut, for instance, she claims Becky was being jealous when she calls her out on the fact she didn’t win all the awards she has.
      • At least in Tobey’s mind, Becky was just being jelly when she told him he shouldn’t be sending a robot in his mommy’s place for a parent-teacher conference.

    The Comic-Book Adaptation provides examples of:

    • Argument of Contradictions: Tobey and Becky get into one about whether or not WordGirl supports Tobey’s latest venture in «The Incredible Shrinking Allowance».
    • Art Shift: Most of the stories are drawn by Steve Young and Andy Price, whose art styles differ greatly from that of the show.
    • Balloon Belly: Captain HuggyFace gets one in «Fondue, Fondon’t» after eating all of Dr. Two-Brains’ cheese.
    • Big «NO!»:
      • Chuck does one in «Think Big» when he realizes that his brother Brent is selling the world’s biggest sandwich.
      • Tobey does one at the end of «The Incredible Shrinking Allowance» after his mother tells him that he’s grounded for a year.
    • Enemy Mine: In one comic, WordGirl teams up with Tobey against the Coalition of Malice.
    • Here We Go Again!: After WordGirl stops the Butcher from stealing the Spiral Ham Van in «The Ham Van Makes the Man», the comic ends with Mr. Botsford reading in the newspaper that the Baked Potato Buggy is going to pass through town and Becky seeing Kid Potato approaching the buggy.
    • I Need to Go Iron My Dog: In «The Ham Van Makes the Man», Becky excuses herself so she and Bob can transform and stop the Butcher by saying that they need to «go do a thing».
    • Instant Fan Club: «Super Fans» has TJ arranging a WordGirl convention, with the fans showing up acting like this and hindering WordGirl in her attempts to fight Lady Redundant Woman. When WordGirl finally gets used to them and decides to incorporate them into her plan to stop the villainess, their attentions are instantly diverted to a teenage heartthrob.
    • I Resemble That Remark!: When Brent says that Chuck always feels the need to compete with him, Chuck responds by getting into an Argument of Contradictions with him over how he’s not competitive.

      Chuck: No, I don’t… times a million. Ha! I win!

    • Kryptonite Is Everywhere: In «Fashion Disaster», Mr. Big is apparently in possession of so much lexonite that he can put a piece of it in every one of his mass-produced fashion clothes.
    • Laser-Guided Broadcast: Right when Chuck and Dr. Two-Brains are talking about how much they feel like failures in «Think Big», a TV ad comes on about the book about how to be more successful than Mr. Big is selling.
    • Loophole Abuse: In «The Coalition of Malice», the villain’s code of conduct prevents Tobey from getting directly involved in WordGirl’s plan to stop the Coalition. It does not, however, prevent him from being involved in preparations for the plan or having his robot hold the rope she uses to tie up the villains.
    • Paper-Thin Disguise: WordGirl’s plan to stop the Coalition of Malice involves her, Tobey, Captain HuggyFace, and Tobey’s robots putting on fake mustaches and dressing as postmen to deliver letters to the villains. Naturally, none of the five villains involved see through this ruse.
    • Rain of Something Unusual: In «Fondue, Fondon’t», Dr. Two-Brains’ latest invention makes it rain cheese.
    • Self-Destruct Mechanism: In «Super Fans», the WordGirl Fanclub build a satellite which they use to find WordGirl wherever she is. It is later revealed that they built in one of these (complete with a red button), which WordGirl uses to destroy the satellite. TJ lampshades that it wasn’t a good idea.
    • Take That!: At Lady Gaga, in «Fashion Disaster»:

      Fashion Judge 1: Clothes made of meat? Uch! Who would wear something like that?
      Fashion Judge 2: Only someone desperate for attention. Next!

    • Villain Team-Up:
      • In the first issue, five of Wordgirl’s villains form «The Coalition of Malice».
      • In «Think Big», Dr. Two-Brains, Chuck the Evil Sandwich-Making Guy, and Mr. Big team up to make a grilled cheese sandwich the size of a city.
    • Wingding Eyes:
      • Tobey gets heart eyes at one point while talking to his darling WordGirl in «The Coalition of Malice».
      • Becky has the same reaction when Scoops asks to interview her in «The Ham Van Makes the Man», plus a bunch of other hearts appearing in the background.
      • Dr. Two-Brains gets cheese eyes when he sees that his cheese ray turned various items around his lab into cheese while he and Wordgirl were fighting over it in «Fondue, Fondon’t».
    • You Are Grounded!: At the end of «The Incredible Shrinking Allowance», Mrs. McCallister grounds Tobey (a ten-year-old) for a year as punishment for his latest scheme.
    Источник

    A. Circle the correct word or phrase.

    1   I saw / was seeing Maria for the first time at Ray’s birthday party.

    2   Richard watched / was watching TV when the phone rang.

    3   When we were on holiday, we went / were going to the café almost every day.

    4   Denise practised / was practising the song every day until she could sing it perfectly.

    5   The phone was engaged when I called. Who did you talk / were you talking to?

    6   Mr Connors owned / was owning two houses and a villa in the south of France.

    7   I did / was doing my homework as soon as I got home from school.

    8   A car came round the corner and I jumped / was jumping out of the way.

    9   When my dad met my mum, he worked / was working as a bus driver.

    10   I got / was getting up at six o’clock every morning last week!

    11   My cousin and I played / were playing on the computer when there was a power cut.

    12   No, that’s not right. I did pass / was passing the test. I got a B.

    Answer

    1 saw   2 was watching   3 went   4 practised

    5 were you talking   6 owned   7 did   8 jumped

    9 was working   10 got   11 were playing   12 did pass

    B. Complete using the correct form of the verb in brackets.

    1   Where ………………………… (you / do) when I saw you on the bus last night?

    2   ………………………… (you / enjoy) the film?

    3   When we shared a room, Zoe ………………………… (always / take) my things. It was so annoying!

    4   When I went to get the tickets, I realised I ………………………… (not / have) any money.

    5   When I was young, we ………………………… (go) to France every year on holiday.

    6   Elvis ………………………… (become) famous for the song Blue Suede Shoes.

    7   When you rang last night, I ………………………… (work) in the garden so I didn’t hear the phone.

    8   I ………………………… (hear) from Davina last night. She says hello.

    9   The old man ………………………… (appear) to be very tired and he slowly sat down.

    10   We ………………………… (throw) a surprise party for my brother last Saturday.

    Answer

    1 were you going   2 Did you enjoy

    3 was always taking   4 did not/didn’t have

    5 went   6 became   7 was working

    8 heard   9 appeared   10 threw

    C. Circle the correct word or phrase.

    Dear Lisa,

    Thanks for your letter. I (1) just left / had just left for school when I saw the postman and he (2) gave / had given it to me. It was really funny! I (3) read / had read it during maths and it (4) made / had made me laugh. I almost (5) got / had got in trouble!

    Anyway, I’m excited because I (6) had / had had my first judo lesson yesterday. I (7) was / had been late for the lesson because when I (8) got / had got there, I suddenly realised I (9) left / had left my judo suit at home! So I (10) went / had gone all the way home and when I (11) got / had got back, the lesson (12) already began / had already begun. The instructor was really nice, though, and I (13) learned / had learned how to do some basic throws. Can’t wait till next time!

    What about you and your taekwondo? The last time I (14) spoke / had spoken to you, you (15) talked / had talked about giving it up. What (16) did you decide / had you decided? I think that’s all for now. My mum and I are going shopping shortly, so I’d better post this.

    Speak to you soon.

    Love,

    Charlotte

    Answer

    1 had just left   2 gave    3 read   4 made

    5 got   6 had   7 was   8 got   9 had left

    10 went   11 got    12 had already begun

    13 learned   14 spoke   15 talked   16 did you decide

    D. Complete using the past perfect simple or past perfect continuous of the verbs in the box. You may need to use a negative form.

    eat • stay • wait • know • write • see • listen • get • have • run

    1   By the time he died, Beethoven …………………… nine symphonies.

    2   We chose the Hotel Rio because we …………………… there before.

    3   We …………………… for over an hour when the train finally arrived.

    4   I was completely out of breath because I …………………… .

    5   I …………………… the film before, so I knew how it ended.

    6   When he got married, I …………………… Chris for about two years.

    7   Johnson …………………… ready for the race for six months and finally the big moment came.

    8   Vivian …………………… computer lessons for very long so she wasn’t sure how to use the Internet.

    9   Holly …………………… oysters before, so she wasn’t sure what to do with them.

    10   I …………………… to my new CD for a few minutes when the CD player started making a funny noise.

    Answer

    1 had written   2 had stayed   3 had been waiting

    4 had been running   5 had seen   6 had known

    7 had been getting   8 hadn’t been having

    9 hadn’t eaten   10 had been listening

    E. Choose the correct answer.

    1   My brother and I …………… swimming almost every day last summer.

          A   went

          B   had been going

          C   were going

          D   had gone

    2   We …………… when someone knocked at the door.

          A   talked

          B   had talked

          C   were talking

          D   were talked

    3   When the robbery happened, the security guard ……………!

          A   slept

          B   was sleeping

          C   had slept

          D   was slept

    4   Jack …………… chess before so I showed him what to do.

          A   hadn’t been playing

          B   didn’t play

          C   wasn’t playing

          D   hadn’t played

    5   I wasn’t sure how Belinda would react because I …………… her long.

          A   didn’t know

          B   wasn’t knowing

          C   hadn’t been knowing

          D   hadn’t known

    6   Ian …………… at the factory long when he was made a manager.

          A   hadn’t been working

          B   wasn’t working

          C   didn’t work

          D   wasn’t worked

    7   I wanted to say goodbye to Jerry, but he …………… .

          A   was already left

          B   already left

          C   had already been leaving

          D   had already left

    8   When we got to the airport, I realised I …………… my passport at home!

          A   was left

          B   had left

          C   left

          D   had been leaving

    Answer

    1 A   2 C   3 B   4 D   5 D   6 A   7 D   8 B

    F. Circle the incorrect words or phrases and rewrite them correctly.

    1   I had paint on my shoes because I’d painted my bedroom all morning.

         …………………………………..

    2   I missed the start of the film because I buy popcorn.

         …………………………………..

    3   It was obvious that Bill has worked because he was very tired when I saw him.

         …………………………………..

    4   We had been tidying the garden for hours and I was needing a rest.

         …………………………………..

    5   When the bus was arriving, we missed it because we were talking.

         …………………………………..

    6   During the Christmas holiday, I was eating too much and watching too much TV!

         …………………………………..

    7   Julian was learning all about computer games by the time he was six.

         …………………………………..

    8   My grandfather was owning a hotel by the beach until he sold it last year.

         …………………………………..

    Answer

    1   I’d painted/I’d been painting

    2   I buy/I was buying/I had been buying

    3   has worked/had been working

    4   was needing/needed

    5   was arriving/arrived

    6   was eating/watching/ate/watched

    7   was learning/had learnt/learned

    8   was owning/owned

    G. Circle the correct word or phrase.

    1   When she was a girl, my mum would / used to live in a village.

    2   I really can’t be / get used to having a new baby brother.

    3   People would / are used to die of diseases in the past that we can cure today.

    4   There would / used to be a cinema on this corner, but they knocked it down.

    5   It was strange at first, but I’m used to play / playing the bagpipes now.

    6   Didn’t you use to / be used to have blonde hair?

    7   Christopher was being / getting used to the idea of joining the army.

    8   People never would / used to be so worried about crime in this area.

    Answer

    1 used to   2 get   3 would   4 used to

    5 playing   6 use to   7 getting   8 used to

    H. Complete each second sentence using the word given, so that it has a similar meaning to the first sentence. Write between two and five words in each gap.

    1   People walked more fifty years ago than they do now.   would

         Fifty years ago, …………………………………… than they do now.

    2   My parents wouldn’t let me stay out late when I was young.   used

         My parents …………………………………… let me stay out late when I was young.

    3   Did you know that Carol played basketball for her country?   to

         Did you know that Carol …………………………………… basketball for her country?

    4   Sending messages around the world instantly is no longer unusual.   got

         We …………………………………… messages around the world instantly.

    5   When he was a teacher, my dad often used to get home quite late.   would

         When he was a teacher, my dad …………………………………… quite late.

    6   Do you think you could learn to live without your mobile phone?   used

         Do you think you could …………………………………… without your mobile phone?

    7   In the past, people wouldn’t go as far away on holiday as they do today.   use

         In the past, people …………………………………… as far away on holiday as they do today.

    8   This town has a lot more cinemas than it had in the past.   used

          This town …………………………………… so many cinemas.

    Answer

    1   people would walk more

    2   never used to/used not to

    3   used to play

    4   have got used to sending

    5   would often get home

    6   get used to living

    7   did not/didn’t use to go

    8   never used to have/used not to have

    I. Find the extra word.

    Childhood

    (1) Childhood would used to be quite different from what it is today. Young (2) people didn’t use not to have so much leisure time. Today’s children may (3) complain about their schoolwork, but our great-grandparents would to go (4) out to work at a very young age. They had often been left school by (5) the time they were fourteen and were found a job. This meant that they (6) have had little free time for hobbies or leisure activities, especially when (7) they had been working hard all day. Of course, they got themselves used (8) to working long hours eventually, but it would meant that they had to (9) grow up very quickly. Today, we are got used to having some free time to (10) do things we enjoy, a luxury people in the past rarely were had.

    Answer

    1 would   2 not   3 to   4 been   5 were

    6 have   7 themselves   8 would   9 got   10 were

    J. Write one word in each gap.

    The night before

    Jane lay awake. She had (1) …………………… preparing for the next day (2) …………………… a long time and now she couldn’t sleep. Her team (3) …………………… playing the local champions at water polo in the final and Jane was the captain. She (4) …………………… feeling the pressure.

    She turned over and remembered how she (5) …………………… learned to swim. Her father had taught her. They (6) …………………… go to the local pool every day after school and her father (7) …………………… to show her what to do. She hadn’t liked the water at first, but she soon (8) …………………… used to it. She learned quickly and joined the water polo team. She had (9) …………………… their youngest member!

    She quickly got used to scoring goals and (10) …………………… under pressure, but tomorrow was different. It was the biggest match of her life. She closed her eyes again and tried to get to sleep. ‘I (11) …………………… used to have problems sleeping,’ she thought to herself. ‘But then again, I didn’t (12) …………………… to be the captain of the team.’ She watched the clock change slowly and knew that it was going to be a long night.

    Answer

    1 been   2 for   3 was/were   4 was

    5 had   6 would   7 used   8 got   9 been

    10 being/swimming   11 never   12 use

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    • English Grammar Exercises for B1 B2 – Word formation 2: nouns (affixes)
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