Exam question 4 · Telling the time
It is given that a lesson is stated to commence à neuf heures. Ascertain the hour of its commencement.
Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: give, state, commence, ascertain · To what, where: It, lesson
This is exam question 4 of lesson 12 «Telling the time» 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
Sentence 1: It is given that a lesson is stated to commence à neuf heures.
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 given | nsubj:pass |
| 2 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 3 given | aux:pass |
| 3 | given | give | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| 4 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 8 stated | mark |
| 5 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 6 lesson | det |
| 6 | lesson | lesson | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 stated | nsubj:pass |
| 7 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 8 stated | aux:pass |
| 8 | stated | state | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 3 given | advcl |
| 9 | to | to | PART | _ | 10 commence | mark |
| 10 | commence | commence | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 8 stated | xcomp |
| 11 | à | à | ADP | _ | 13 heures | case |
| 12 | neuf | neuf | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 13 heures | nummod |
| 13 | heures | heure | NOUN | Number=Plur | 10 commence | obl |
| 14 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 given | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | give | present · passive | It | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme | |||||
| 2 | state speech: other | present · passive | a lesson | tree rules | |||||
| 3 | commence | to-infinitive | à neuf heures | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
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: Ascertain the hour of its commencement.
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ascertain | ascertain | VERB | Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 2 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 3 hour | det |
| 3 | hour | hour | NOUN | Number=Sing | 1 Ascertain | obj |
| 4 | of | of | ADP | _ | 6 commencement | case |
| 5 | its | its | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 6 commencement | nmod:poss |
| 6 | commencement | commencement | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 hour | nmod |
| 7 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 1 Ascertain | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ascertain | imperative | you not said here | hour | vn discover-84 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent |
The options
Option 1 · ← Mova's choice
Ten minutes to nine
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ten | ten | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 2 minutes | nummod |
| 2 | minutes | minute | NOUN | Number=Plur | root | root |
| 3 | to | to | ADP | _ | 4 nine | case |
| 4 | nine | nine | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 2 minutes | nmod |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 2 · ✓ the right answer
Nine o'clock
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nine | nine | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 2 o'clock | nummod |
| 2 | o'clock | o'clock | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 3
Nineteen o'clock
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nineteen | nineteen | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 2 o'clock | nummod |
| 2 | o'clock | o'clock | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 4
Nine minutes past the hour
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nine | nine | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 2 minutes | nummod |
| 2 | minutes | minute | NOUN | Number=Plur | root | root |
| 3 | past | past | ADP | _ | 5 hour | case |
| 4 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 5 hour | det |
| 5 | hour | hour | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 minutes | nmod |
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/12-telling-the-time/e4/