Test 4 · Silent letters: why French doesn't say everything it writes
Grace in Texas goes, "y'all, where's the t at in et?" What's the answer?
Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: Grace, answer · What happens: go, be · To what, where: y'all, t, et
This is test 4 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: Grace in Texas goes, "y'all, where's the t at in et?"
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Grace | Grace | PROPN | Number=Sing | 4 goes | nsubj |
| 2 | in | in | ADP | _ | 3 Texas | case |
| 3 | Texas | Texas | PROPN | Number=Sing | 1 Grace | nmod |
| 4 | goes | go | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 7 y'all | punct |
| 6 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 7 y'all | punct |
| 7 | y'all | y'all | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 goes | obl |
| 8 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 12 t | punct |
| 9 | where | where | ADV | PronType=Rel | 12 t | advmod |
| 10 | 's | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 12 t | cop |
| 11 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 12 t | det |
| 12 | t | t | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 y'all | appos |
| 13 | at | at | ADP | _ | 15 et | case |
| 14 | in | in | ADP | _ | 15 et | case |
| 15 | et | ET | NOUN | Number=Sing | 12 t | nmod |
| 16 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 4 goes | punct |
| 17 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 4 goes | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | go | present | Grace in Texas | y'all | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 2 | is a in a quote | present | the t | et | 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's the answer?
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | What | what | PRON | PronType=Int | root | root |
| 2 | 's | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 1 What | cop |
| 3 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 4 answer | det |
| 4 | answer | answer | NOUN | Number=Sing | 1 What | nsubj |
| 5 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 1 What | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is a | present | the answer | tree rules |
The options
Option 1 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer
It's silent: et always sounds like "ay"
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | It | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 silent | nsubj |
| 2 | 's | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 3 silent | cop |
| 3 | silent | silent | ADJ | Degree=Pos | root | root |
| 4 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 7 sounds | punct |
| 5 | et | ET | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 sounds | nsubj |
| 6 | always | always | ADV | PronType=Tot | 7 sounds | advmod |
| 7 | sounds | sound | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 3 silent | parataxis |
| 8 | like | like | ADP | _ | 10 ay | case |
| 9 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 10 ay | punct |
| 10 | ay | ay | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 sounds | obl |
| 11 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 3 silent | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | present | It | silent property | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | sound | present | et | like ay; always property | vn stimulus_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
Option 2
The app is broken, et has no t at all
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 2 app | det |
| 2 | app | app | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 broken | nsubj:pass |
| 3 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 4 broken | aux:pass |
| 4 | broken | break | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| 5 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 7 has | punct |
| 6 | et | ET | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 has | nsubj |
| 7 | has | have | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 4 broken | parataxis |
| 8 | no | no | DET | PronType=Neg | 9 t | det |
| 9 | t | t | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 has | obj |
| 10 | at | at | ADP | _ | 11 all | case |
| 11 | all | all | DET | PronType=Tot | 9 t | nmod |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | break | present · passive | the app | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient | |||||
| 2 | have | present | et | no t | all | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent t=Patient |
Option 3
It's said loud, as in "Ethan"
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | It | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 said | nsubj |
| 2 | 's | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 3 said | aux:pass |
| 3 | said | say | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| 4 | loud | loud | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 said | xcomp |
| 5 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 9 Ethan | punct |
| 6 | as | as | ADP | _ | 9 Ethan | case |
| 7 | in | in | ADP | _ | 9 Ethan | case |
| 8 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 9 Ethan | punct |
| 9 | Ethan | Ethan | PROPN | Number=Sing | 3 said | parataxis |
| 10 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 9 Ethan | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | say speech: assert | present · passive | It | loud property | tree rules |
Option 4
It's said only at the end of a sentence
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | It | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 said | nsubj |
| 2 | 's | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 3 said | aux:pass |
| 3 | said | say | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| 4 | only | only | ADV | _ | 7 end | advmod |
| 5 | at | at | ADP | _ | 7 end | case |
| 6 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 7 end | det |
| 7 | end | end | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 said | ccomp |
| 8 | of | of | ADP | _ | 10 sentence | case |
| 9 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 10 sentence | det |
| 10 | sentence | sentence | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 end | nmod |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | say speech: assert | present · passive | It | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: subject=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/t4/