Test 1 · ★ · i before e, silent letters and other famous traps

«i before e except after c, always, no exceptions, sorted». What's the problem?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: i, problem · What happens: e, sort, be · To what, where: exceptions

This is test 1 · ★ of lesson 10 «i before e, silent letters and other famous traps» of the English course of Mova's primary school. The page gives the question's syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause, then the 4 options as the student saw them, each with its tree and pragmatics. Every text is parsed by Mova itself. How the student answered it, with the score of every option and why: the test at school.

The question

Sentence 1: «i before e except after c, always, no exceptions, sorted».

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	«	«	PUNCT	_	4 e	punct
2	i	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	4 e	nsubj
3	before	before	SCONJ	_	4 e	advmod
4	e	e	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	except	except	ADP	_	7 c	case
6	after	after	ADP	_	7 c	case
7	c	c	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 e	obl
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 e	punct
9	always	always	ADV	PronType=Tot	4 e	advmod
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 exceptions	punct
11	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	12 exceptions	det
12	exceptions	exception	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 e	parataxis
13	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 sorted	punct
14	sorted	sort	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	12 exceptions	acl
15	»	»	PUNCT	_	14 sorted	punct
16	.	.	PUNCT	_	4 e	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	e in a quote	present	i					except c; always property	tree rules
2	sort in a quote	participle		no exceptions not said here					vn classify-29.10 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

Sentence 2: What's the problem?

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	root	root
2	's	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 What	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 problem	det
4	problem	problem	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 What	nsubj
5	?	?	PUNCT	_	1 What	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	the problem						tree rules

The options

Option 1 · ← Mova's choice

It is only for words that start with c, like «ceiling» and «cereal»

The tree, 13 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 words	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 words	cop
3	only	only	ADV	_	5 words	advmod
4	for	for	ADP	_	5 words	case
5	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
6	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	7 start	nsubj
7	start	start	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 words	acl:relcl
8	with	with	ADP	_	9 c	case
9	c	c	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 start	obl
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 ceiling	punct
11	like	like	ADP	_	13 ceiling	case
12	«	«	PUNCT	_	13 ceiling	punct
13	ceiling	ceiling	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 words	conj
14	»	»	PUNCT	_	13 ceiling	punct
15	and	and	CCONJ	_	17 cereal	cc
16	«	«	PUNCT	_	17 cereal	punct
17	cereal	cereal	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 ceiling	conj
18	»	»	PUNCT	_	17 cereal	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	It					for words and ceiling and cereal	tree rules
2	start	present	words and ceiling and cereal					with c	vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V PP.subeventuality»: agent=Eventuality with c=Subeventuality

Option 2

It should be «e before i except after c»

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 e	nsubj
2	should	should	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 e	aux
3	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	5 e	cop
4	«	«	PUNCT	_	5 e	punct
5	e	e	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	before	before	ADP	_	7 i	case
7	i	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	5 e	conj
8	except	except	ADP	_	10 c	case
9	after	after	ADP	_	10 c	case
10	c	c	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 e	obl
11	»	»	PUNCT	_	5 e	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a in a quote	should	It	e				except c	tree rules

Option 3

Nothing, the rhyme has no exceptions

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	5 has	nsubj
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Nothing	punct
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 rhyme	det
4	rhyme	rhyme	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 has	nsubj
5	has	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	7 exceptions	det
7	exceptions	exception	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 has	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	have	present	Nothing	no exceptions					vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent exception=Patient

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

It's a guide for /ee/; words like «weird» break it

The tree, 11 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 guide	nsubj
2	's	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 guide	cop
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 guide	det
4	guide	guide	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	for	for	ADP	_	7 ee	case
6	/	/	PUNCT	_	5 for	punct
7	ee	ee	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 guide	nmod
8	/	/	PUNCT	_	7 ee	punct
9	;	;	PUNCT	_	10 words	punct
10	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	15 break	nsubj
11	like	like	ADP	_	13 weird	case
12	«	«	PUNCT	_	13 weird	punct
13	weird	weird	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 words	nmod
14	»	»	PUNCT	_	13 weird	punct
15	break	break	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 guide	parataxis
16	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	15 break	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	It	a guide				for ee	tree rules
2	break	infinitive	words like weird	ee					vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer it=Patient

Text: the tests of Mova's primary school, written for Mova (world/data/school/), as the course runner gave them to the student. Trees: Mova's own parse — the en model on the CPU, when the site is built — not checked by a teacher; they may be wrong. Frames: Mova's frames reader (prag), each text read on its own. Elamur Cosmic License.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/english/10-i-before-e-silent-letters-and-famous-traps/t1/