Exam question 4 · Plurals: les, des and silent s

State the manner in which the final consonant of "les" is pronounced when it precedes a word commencing with a vowel.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, consonant, word · What happens: state, pronounce, precede, commence · To what, where: manner, final consonant, word

This is exam question 4 of lesson 26 «Plurals: les, des and silent s» 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

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	State	state	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 manner	det
3	manner	manner	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 State	obj
4	in	in	ADP	_	5 which	case
5	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	14 pronounced	obl
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 consonant	det
7	final	final	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 consonant	amod
8	consonant	consonant	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 pronounced	nsubj:pass
9	of	of	ADP	_	11 les	case
10	"	"	PUNCT	_	11 les	punct
11	les	le	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 consonant	nmod
12	"	"	PUNCT	_	11 les	punct
13	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	14 pronounced	aux:pass
14	pronounced	pronounce	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 manner	acl:relcl
15	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	17 precedes	advmod
16	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	17 precedes	nsubj
17	precedes	precede	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	14 pronounced	advcl
18	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	19 word	det
19	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 precedes	obj
20	commencing	commence	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	19 word	acl
21	with	with	ADP	_	23 vowel	case
22	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	23 vowel	det
23	vowel	vowel	NOUN	Number=Sing	20 commencing	obl
24	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 State	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	state speech: other	imperative	you not said here	the manner			vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent manner=Topic
2	pronounce	present · passive		the final consonant of les	the manner		vn pronounce-29.3.1 «NP V NP PP.manner»: subject=Theme in which=Manner
3	precede	present	consonant	a word			vn contiguous_location-47.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme word=Co-Theme
4	commence	gerund	a word not said here			with a vowel	vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V PP.subeventuality»: agent=Eventuality with vowel=Subeventuality

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.

The options

Option 1 · ← Mova's choice

As the sound t, sharply

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	As	as	ADP	_	4 t	case
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 t	det
3	sound	sound	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 t	compound
4	t	t	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 t	punct
6	sharply	sharply	ADV	_	4 t	advmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 2

It remains entirely silent

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	2 remains	nsubj
2	remains	remain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	entirely	entirely	ADV	_	4 silent	advmod
4	silent	silent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 remains	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	remain	present	It					silent property	vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3

As the sound s, as in English

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	As	as	ADP	_	3 sound	case
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 sound	det
3	sound	sound	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	s	's	PART	Typo=Yes	3 sound	case
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 English	punct
6	as	as	ADP	_	8 English	case
7	in	in	ADP	_	8 English	case
8	English	English	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 sound	nmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

As the sound z

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	As	as	ADP	_	4 z	case
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 z	det
3	sound	sound	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 z	compound
4	z	z	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

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/26-plurals-les-des-and-silent-s/e4/