Test 10 · Silent letters: why French doesn't say everything it writes
Isla's gran orders "a wee croy-SANT, ken." ("Ken" means you know.) What should she say?
Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: gran, Ken, you · What happens: order, mean, know, say · To what, where: wee croy · Speech: someone speaks here
This is test 10 of lesson 1 «Silent letters: why French doesn't say everything it writes» of the French 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: Isla's gran orders "a wee croy-SANT, ken."
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Isla | Isla | PROPN | Number=Sing | 3 gran | nmod:poss |
| 2 | 's | 's | PART | _ | 1 Isla | case |
| 3 | gran | gran | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 orders | nsubj |
| 4 | orders | order | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 8 croy | punct |
| 6 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 8 croy | det |
| 7 | wee | wee | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 8 croy | amod |
| 8 | croy | croy | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 orders | obj |
| 9 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 10 SANT | punct |
| 10 | SANT | SANT | PROPN | Number=Sing | 8 croy | appos |
| 11 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 12 ken | punct |
| 12 | ken | ken | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 croy | conj |
| 13 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 orders | punct |
| 14 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 4 orders | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | order | present | Isla's gran | a wee croy and ken | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent croy=Theme |
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: ("Ken" means you know.)
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ( | ( | PUNCT | _ | 5 means | punct |
| 2 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 3 Ken | punct |
| 3 | Ken | Ken | PROPN | Number=Sing | 5 means | nsubj |
| 4 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 3 Ken | punct |
| 5 | means | mean | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 6 | you | you | PRON | Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs | 7 know | nsubj |
| 7 | know | know | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 5 means | ccomp |
| 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 | Ken | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 2 | know | present | you | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
Sentence 3: What should she say?
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | What | what | PRON | PronType=Int | 4 say | obj |
| 2 | should | should | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 4 say | aux |
| 3 | she | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 4 say | nsubj |
| 4 | say | say | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | root | root |
| 5 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 4 say | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | say speech: assert | should | ken | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent what=Topic |
The options
Option 1 · ← Mova's choice
"uhn croy-SAHN"
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 5 SAHN | punct |
| 2 | uhn | uhn | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 croy | amod |
| 3 | croy | croy | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 SAHN | nmod:desc |
| 4 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 5 SAHN | punct |
| 5 | SAHN | SAHN | PROPN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 6 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 5 SAHN | punct |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 2
"uhn krwa-SANT"
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 3 krwa | punct |
| 2 | uhn | uhn | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 krwa | amod |
| 3 | krwa | krwa | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 4 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 5 SANT | punct |
| 5 | SANT | SANT | PROPN | Number=Sing | 3 krwa | appos |
| 6 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 3 krwa | punct |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 3
"uhn kwa-SAHNT"
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 5 SAHNT | punct |
| 2 | uhn | uhn | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 5 SAHNT | amod |
| 3 | kwa | kwa | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 SAHNT | compound |
| 4 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 3 kwa | punct |
| 5 | SAHNT | sahnt | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 6 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 5 SAHNT | punct |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 4 · ✓ the right answer
"uhn krwa-SAHN"
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 5 SAHN | punct |
| 2 | uhn | uhn | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 krwa | amod |
| 3 | krwa | krwa | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 SAHN | nmod:desc |
| 4 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 5 SAHN | punct |
| 5 | SAHN | SAHN | PROPN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 6 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 5 SAHN | punct |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
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/t10/