Test 9 · ★★ · Active and passive voice, modal verbs
Ellie in Texas: "Y'all should've told me!" ("Y'all" means you all.) Which modal is she using?
Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: Y'all, modal · What happens: tell, mean, use · To what, where: Ellie, me, you · Speech: someone speaks here
This is test 9 · ★★ of lesson 32 «Active and passive voice, modal verbs» 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: Ellie in Texas: "Y'all should've told me!"
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ellie | Ellie | PROPN | Number=Sing | 9 told | nsubj:pass |
| 2 | in | in | ADP | _ | 3 Texas | case |
| 3 | Texas | Texas | PROPN | Number=Sing | 1 Ellie | nmod |
| 4 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 9 told | punct |
| 5 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 9 told | punct |
| 6 | Y'all | y'all | PRON | Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs | 9 told | nsubj:pass |
| 7 | should | should | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 9 told | aux |
| 8 | 've | have | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 9 told | aux |
| 9 | told | tell | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| 10 | me | I | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 9 told | iobj |
| 11 | ! | ! | PUNCT | _ | 9 told | punct |
| 12 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 9 told | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | tell speech: assert in a quote | should · perfect · passive | Ellie in Texas | me | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: subject=Recipient i=Topic |
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: ("Y'all" means you all.)
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ( | ( | PUNCT | _ | 5 means | punct |
| 2 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 3 Y'all | punct |
| 3 | Y'all | Y'all | PROPN | Number=Sing | 5 means | nsubj |
| 4 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 3 Y'all | punct |
| 5 | means | mean | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 6 | you | you | PRON | Case=Acc Person=2 PronType=Prs | 5 means | obj |
| 7 | all | all | DET | PronType=Tot | 6 you | nmod:unmarked |
| 8 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 5 means | punct |
| 9 | ) | ) | PUNCT | _ | 5 means | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | mean | present | Y'all | you | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent you=Topic |
Sentence 3: Which modal is she using?
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Which | which | DET | PronType=Int | 2 modal | det |
| 2 | modal | modal | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 using | nsubj |
| 3 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 5 using | aux |
| 4 | she | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 5 using | nsubj |
| 5 | using | use | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | root | root |
| 6 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 5 using | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | use | present · progressive | which modal | vn eat-39.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
The options
Option 1 · ← Mova's choice
all
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | all | all | DET | PronType=Tot | root | root |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 2
me
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | me | I | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | root | root |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 3 · ✓ the right answer
should
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | should | should | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 4
told
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | told | tell | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | tell speech: assert | participle | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
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/32-active-and-passive-voice-modal-verbs/t9/