Test 11 · Silent letters: why French doesn't say everything it writes
Ava in Auckland thinks deux sounds like "dukes" with no k, "sweet as". Which mistake is she still making?
Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: Ava, deux, mistake · What happens: think, sound, be · Speech: someone speaks here
This is test 11 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: Ava in Auckland thinks deux sounds like "dukes" with no k, "sweet as".
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ava | Ava | PROPN | Number=Sing | 4 thinks | nsubj |
| 2 | in | in | ADP | _ | 3 Auckland | case |
| 3 | Auckland | Auckland | PROPN | Number=Sing | 1 Ava | nmod |
| 4 | thinks | think | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | deux | deux | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 sounds | nsubj |
| 6 | sounds | sound | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 4 thinks | ccomp |
| 7 | like | like | ADP | _ | 9 dukes | case |
| 8 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 9 dukes | punct |
| 9 | dukes | duke | NOUN | Number=Plur | 6 sounds | obl |
| 10 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 9 dukes | punct |
| 11 | with | with | ADP | _ | 13 k | case |
| 12 | no | no | DET | PronType=Neg | 13 k | det |
| 13 | k | k | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 sounds | obl |
| 14 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 16 sweet | punct |
| 15 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 16 sweet | punct |
| 16 | sweet | sweet | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 6 sounds | parataxis |
| 17 | as | as | ADP | _ | 16 sweet | fixed |
| 18 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 16 sweet | punct |
| 19 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 thinks | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | think speech: other | present | Ava in Auckland | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme | |||||
| 2 | sound | present | deux | like dukes; with no k | tree rules |
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: Which mistake is she still making?
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Which | which | DET | PronType=Int | 2 mistake | det |
| 2 | mistake | mistake | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 making | nsubj |
| 3 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 6 making | cop |
| 4 | she | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 6 making | nsubj |
| 5 | still | still | ADV | _ | 6 making | advmod |
| 6 | making | make | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | root | root |
| 7 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 6 making | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | present | which mistake | still | make property | tree rules |
The options
Option 1 · ← Mova's choice
She is saying the d, which is silent
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | She | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 saying | nsubj |
| 2 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 3 saying | aux |
| 3 | saying | say | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | root | root |
| 4 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 5 d | det |
| 5 | d | D | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 saying | obj |
| 6 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 9 silent | punct |
| 7 | which | which | PRON | PronType=Rel | 9 silent | nsubj |
| 8 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 9 silent | cop |
| 9 | silent | silent | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 5 d | parataxis |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | say speech: assert | present · progressive | She | the d | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent d=Topic | ||||
| 2 | is | present | the d | silent property | tree rules |
Option 2
She is saying the word too slowly
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | She | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 saying | nsubj |
| 2 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 3 saying | aux |
| 3 | saying | say | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | root | root |
| 4 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 5 word | det |
| 5 | word | word | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 saying | obj |
| 6 | too | too | ADV | _ | 7 slowly | advmod |
| 7 | slowly | slowly | ADV | _ | 3 saying | advmod |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | say speech: assert | present · progressive | She | the word | slowly property | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent word=Topic |
Option 3 · ✓ the right answer
She is saying an s sound for the silent x
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | She | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 saying | nsubj |
| 2 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 3 saying | aux |
| 3 | saying | say | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | root | root |
| 4 | an | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 6 sound | det |
| 5 | s | s | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 sound | compound |
| 6 | sound | sound | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 saying | obj |
| 7 | for | for | ADP | _ | 10 x | case |
| 8 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 10 x | det |
| 9 | silent | silent | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 10 x | amod |
| 10 | x | x | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 saying | obl |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | say speech: assert | present · progressive | She | a s sound | for the silent x | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent sound=Topic |
Option 4
She should say "dwa", like trois
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | She | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 say | nsubj |
| 2 | should | should | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 3 say | aux |
| 3 | say | say | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | root | root |
| 4 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 5 dwa | punct |
| 5 | dwa | dwa | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 say | obj |
| 6 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 5 dwa | punct |
| 7 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 9 trois | punct |
| 8 | like | like | ADP | _ | 9 trois | case |
| 9 | trois | trois | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 say | conj |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | say speech: assert | should | She | dwa | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent dwa=Topic |
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/t11/