Test 2 · ★ · Standard English and dialect: "we was" in talk, "we were"…

★★★ Which sentence is Standard English but could be spoken in any accent?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: ★ ★ ★ · What happens: be, speak · To what, where: Standard English, accent · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 2 · ★ of lesson 38 «Standard English and dialect: "we was" in talk, "we were" in writing» 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

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	★	★	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 ★	compound
2	★	★	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 ★	compound
3	★	★	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 English	nsubj
4	Which	which	DET	PronType=Int	5 sentence	det
5	sentence	sentence	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 ★	appos
6	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 English	cop
7	Standard	Standard	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 English	compound
8	English	English	PROPN	Number=Sing	root	root
9	but	but	CCONJ	_	12 spoken	cc
10	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	12 spoken	aux
11	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	12 spoken	aux:pass
12	spoken	speak	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 English	conj
13	in	in	ADP	_	15 accent	case
14	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	15 accent	det
15	accent	accent	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 spoken	obl
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 English	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	★ ★ ★	Standard English					tree rules
2	speak speech: other	could · passive	★ ★ ★ not said here			any accent			vn talk-37.5 «NP V»

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.

The options

Option 1 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

We were going to the beach.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	We	we	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	3 going	nsubj
2	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 going	aux
3	going	go	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
4	to	to	ADP	_	6 beach	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 beach	det
6	beach	beach	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 going	obl
7	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 going	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	go	past · progressive	We			the beach			vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme to beach=Initial_Location

Option 2

Us were going to the beach.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Us	we	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	3 going	nsubj
2	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 going	aux
3	going	go	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
4	to	to	ADP	_	6 beach	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 beach	det
6	beach	beach	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 going	obl
7	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 going	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	go	past · progressive	Us			the beach			vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme to beach=Initial_Location

Option 3

We were going to't beach.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	We	we	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	3 going	nsubj
2	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 going	aux
3	going	go	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
4	to't	to't	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 beach	compound
5	beach	beach	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 going	obj
6	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 going	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	go	past · progressive	We	to't beach					vn meander-47.7 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location beach=Theme

Option 4

We was going t'beach.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	We	we	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	3 going	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 going	aux
3	going	go	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
4	t'beach	t'beach	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 going	obj
5	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 going	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	go	past · progressive	We	t'beach					vn meander-47.7 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location t'beach=Theme

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/38-standard-english-and-dialect-we-was-and-we-were/t2/