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Test 3 · Silent letters: why French doesn't say everything it writes

Your mate reckons, "Every last letter in French is silent, so neuf is 'neu' and bonjour is 'bonjou'." What is wrong?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: mate, last letter, neuf, bonjour · What happens: reckon, be · To what, where: neu, bonjou · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 3 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: Your mate reckons, "Every last letter in French is silent, so neuf is 'neu' and bonjour is 'bonjou'."

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Your	your	PRON	Case=Gen Person=2 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 mate	nmod:poss
2	mate	mate	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 reckons	nsubj
3	reckons	reckon	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 silent	punct
5	"	"	PUNCT	_	12 silent	punct
6	Every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	8 letter	det
7	last	last	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 letter	amod
8	letter	letter	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 silent	nsubj
9	in	in	ADP	_	10 French	case
10	French	French	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 letter	nmod
11	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	12 silent	cop
12	silent	silent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 reckons	parataxis
13	,	,	PUNCT	_	18 neu	punct
14	so	so	ADV	_	18 neu	advmod
15	neuf	neuf	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 neu	nsubj
16	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	18 neu	cop
17	'	'	PUNCT	_	18 neu	punct
18	neu	neu	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 reckons	obl
19	'	'	PUNCT	_	18 neu	punct
20	and	and	CCONJ	_	24 bonjou	cc
21	bonjour	bonjour	NOUN	Number=Sing	24 bonjou	nsubj
22	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	24 bonjou	cop
23	'	'	PUNCT	_	24 bonjou	punct
24	bonjou	bonjou	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 neu	conj
25	'	'	PUNCT	_	24 bonjou	punct
26	.	.	PUNCT	_	24 bonjou	punct
27	"	"	PUNCT	_	24 bonjou	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	reckon	present	Your mate						vn consider-29.9-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
2	is in a quote	present	every last letter in French					silent property	tree rules
3	is a in a quote	present	neuf	neu and bonjou					tree rules
4	is a in a quote	present	bonjour	bonjou					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: What is wrong?

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	3 wrong	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 wrong	cop
3	wrong	wrong	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 wrong	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present						wrong property	tree rules

The options

Option 1

Those words drop their first letter, not their last

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Those	that	DET	Number=Plur PronType=Dem	2 words	det
2	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 drop	nsubj
3	drop	drop	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 letter	nmod:poss
5	first	first	ADJ	Degree=Pos NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	6 letter	amod
6	letter	letter	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 drop	obj
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 last	punct
8	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	10 last	advmod
9	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	10 last	nmod:poss
10	last	last	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 drop	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	drop	present	that words	words's first letter					vn put_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent letter=Theme
2	letter		words = word						nom letter «communication transitive»: poss=agent

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

Only the last letter of names is silent in French

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Only	only	ADV	_	4 letter	advmod
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 letter	det
3	last	last	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 letter	amod
4	letter	letter	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 silent	nsubj
5	of	of	ADP	_	6 names	case
6	names	name	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 letter	nmod
7	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 silent	cop
8	silent	silent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
9	in	in	ADP	_	10 French	case
10	French	French	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 silent	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the last letter of names			French		silent property	tree rules
2	letter			names					nom letter «communication transitive»: of=patient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

f and r are CaReFuL letters, so they are usually said

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	f	f	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 letters	nsubj
2	and	and	CCONJ	_	3 r	cc
3	r	r	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 f	conj
4	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 letters	cop
5	CaReFuL	careful	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 letters	amod
6	letters	letter	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 said	punct
8	so	so	ADV	_	12 said	advmod
9	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 said	nsubj
10	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	12 said	aux:pass
11	usually	usually	ADV	_	12 said	advmod
12	said	say	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 letters	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	f and r	CaReFuL letters					tree rules
2	say speech: assert	present · passive		f				usually property	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: subject=Topic

Option 4

Nothing, that is exactly how the French say them

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	root	root
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Nothing	punct
3	that	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	6 how	nsubj
4	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 how	cop
5	exactly	exactly	ADV	_	6 how	advmod
6	how	how	ADV	PronType=Int	9 say	advmod
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 French	det
8	French	French	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 say	nsubj
9	say	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 Nothing	acl:relcl
10	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 say	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	that					exactly, how property	tree rules
2	say speech: assert	present	the French	them = they					vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent they=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/t3/