Exam question 2 · Silent letters: why French doesn't say everything it writes

Identify the pronunciation of the conjunction et, rendered in English as "and".

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: you · What happens: identify, render, pronounce · To what, where: pronunciation, English, conjunction et

This is exam question 2 of lesson 1 «Silent letters: why French doesn't say everything it writes» of the French course of Mova's primary school, asked in stiff, formal language. 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	Identify	identify	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 pronunciation	det
3	pronunciation	pronunciation	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
4	of	of	ADP	_	7 et	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 et	det
6	conjunction	conjunction	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 et	compound
7	et	ET	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 pronunciation	nmod
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 rendered	punct
9	rendered	render	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	1 Identify	parataxis
10	in	in	ADP	_	11 English	case
11	English	English	PROPN	Number=Sing	9 rendered	obl
12	as	as	SCONJ	_	14 and	mark
13	"	"	PUNCT	_	14 and	punct
14	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 rendered	cc
15	"	"	PUNCT	_	9 rendered	punct
16	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the pronunciation of the conjunction et		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent pronunciation=Theme
2	render	participle			English	vn give-13.1 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent
3	pronounce			the conjunction et		nom pronunciation «communication transitive»: of=patient

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

"ay", the terminal t remaining wholly silent

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	"	"	PUNCT	_	2 ay	punct
2	ay	ay	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	"	"	PUNCT	_	2 ay	punct
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 t	punct
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 t	det
6	terminal	terminal	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 t	compound
7	t	t	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 ay	appos
8	remaining	remain	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	7 t	acl
9	wholly	wholly	ADV	_	8 remaining	advmod
10	silent	silent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 remaining	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	remain	gerund	the terminal t not said here					silent, wholly property	vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2

"eh-tuh", a supplementary vowel being appended

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	"	"	PUNCT	_	4 tuh	punct
2	eh	eh	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 tuh	compound
3	-	-	PUNCT	_	4 tuh	punct
4	tuh	tuh	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	"	"	PUNCT	_	4 tuh	punct
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 vowel	punct
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 vowel	det
8	supplementary	supplementary	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 vowel	amod
9	vowel	vowel	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 tuh	nmod
10	being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	11 appended	aux:pass
11	appended	append	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	9 vowel	acl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	append	gerund · passive		a supplementary vowel not said here					tree rules

Option 3

"eet", the vowel being considerably lengthened

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	"	"	PUNCT	_	2 eet	punct
2	eet	eet	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	"	"	PUNCT	_	2 eet	punct
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 vowel	punct
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 vowel	det
6	vowel	vowel	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 eet	appos
7	being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	9 lengthened	aux:pass
8	considerably	considerably	ADV	_	9 lengthened	advmod
9	lengthened	lengthen	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 vowel	acl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	lengthen	gerund · passive		the vowel not said here				considerably property	vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»

Option 4

"ett", the terminal t being distinctly articulated

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	"	"	PUNCT	_	2 ett	punct
2	ett	ett	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	"	"	PUNCT	_	2 ett	punct
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 t	punct
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 t	det
6	terminal	terminal	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 t	compound
7	t	t	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 ett	appos
8	being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	10 articulated	aux:pass
9	distinctly	distinctly	ADV	_	10 articulated	advmod
10	articulated	articulate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 t	acl:relcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	articulate speech: other	gerund · passive		the terminal t not said here				distinctly property	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»

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/french/1-silent-letters-why-french-doesnt-say-everything-it-writes/e2/