Test 3 · Spelling traps: their, there, they're and friends

What would happen if we spelled every word exactly as it sounds?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: we, word · What happens: happen, spell, sound · To what, where: word

This is test 3 of lesson 12 «Spelling traps: their, there, they're and friends» of the language 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

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	3 happen	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 happen	aux
3	happen	happen	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	if	if	SCONJ	_	6 spelled	mark
5	we	we	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	6 spelled	nsubj
6	spelled	spell	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 happen	advcl
7	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	8 word	det
8	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 spelled	obj
9	exactly	exactly	ADV	_	12 sounds	advmod
10	as	as	SCONJ	_	12 sounds	mark
11	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 sounds	nsubj
12	sounds	sound	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 spelled	advcl
13	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 happen	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	happen	would				vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	spell a condition, not said to happen	participle	we	every word		vn pronounce-29.3.1 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Agent word=Theme
3	sound	present	word		exactly property	vn stimulus_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus

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

Nobody could write "too"

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Nobody	nobody	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	3 write	nsubj
2	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 write	aux
3	write	write	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	"	"	PUNCT	_	5 too	punct
5	too	too	ADV	_	3 write	advmod
6	"	"	PUNCT	_	3 write	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	write	could	Nobody						vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 2

Nothing, because they already look different from each other

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	_	6 look	punct
3	because	because	SCONJ	_	6 look	mark
4	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 look	nsubj
5	already	already	ADV	_	6 look	advmod
6	look	look	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 Nothing	acl:relcl
7	different	different	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 look	xcomp
8	from	from	ADP	_	9 each	case
9	each	each	DET	ExtPos=PRON PronType=Rcp	7 different	obl
10	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 each	fixed

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	look	present	they					different property	vn stimulus_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus

Option 3

We'd need more letters for "there"

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	We	we	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	3 need	nsubj
2	'd	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 need	aux
3	need	need	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	more	more	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	5 letters	amod
5	letters	letter	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 need	obj
6	for	for	ADP	_	8 there	case
7	"	"	PUNCT	_	8 there	punct
8	there	there	ADV	PronType=Dem	3 need	obl
9	"	"	PUNCT	_	3 need	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	need	would	We	more letters					vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot letter=Theme

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Their, there and they're would all look the same

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	3 there	nmod:poss
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	3 there	punct
3	there	there	ADV	PronType=Dem	root	root
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 look	cc
5	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 look	nsubj
6	're	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 look	aux
7	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	9 look	aux
8	all	all	ADV	_	9 look	advmod
9	look	look	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 there	conj
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 same	det
11	same	same	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 look	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	look	would · present	they	the same				all property	vn seem-109-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme same=Attribute

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/language/12-spelling-traps-their-there-theyre/t3/