Test 2 · Silent letters and the mystery of -ough
A Scottish gran says "It's dreich, the loch's all grey." What sound does "ch" in loch make?
Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: Scottish gran, gran, loch, sound · What happens: say, be, do, make · To what, where: dreich, ch, loch · Speech: someone speaks here
This is test 2 of lesson 13 «Silent letters and the mystery of -ough» 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
Sentence 1: A Scottish gran says "It's dreich, the loch's all grey."
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 3 gran | det |
| 2 | Scottish | Scottish | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 gran | amod |
| 3 | gran | gran | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 says | nsubj |
| 4 | says | say | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 8 dreich | punct |
| 6 | It | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 8 dreich | nsubj |
| 7 | 's | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 8 dreich | cop |
| 8 | dreich | dreich | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 says | obj |
| 9 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 14 grey | punct |
| 10 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 11 loch | det |
| 11 | loch | loch | NOUN | Number=Sing | 14 grey | nsubj |
| 12 | 's | 's | PART | _ | 11 loch | case |
| 13 | all | all | DET | PronType=Tot | 14 grey | det |
| 14 | grey | grey | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 8 dreich | conj |
| 15 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 8 dreich | punct |
| 16 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 8 dreich | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | say speech: assert | present | a Scottish gran | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 2 | is a in a quote | present | gran | dreich | tree rules | ||||
| 3 | be in a quote | the loch | 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 sound does "ch" in loch make?
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | What | what | DET | PronType=Int | 2 sound | det |
| 2 | sound | sound | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 does | nsubj |
| 3 | does | do | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 5 ch | punct |
| 5 | ch | ch | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 does | obj |
| 6 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 5 ch | punct |
| 7 | in | in | ADP | _ | 8 loch | case |
| 8 | loch | loch | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 does | obl |
| 9 | make | make | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 3 does | advcl |
| 10 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 3 does | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | do | present | what sound | ch | loch | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ch=Eventuality | |||
| 2 | make | infinitive | what sound not said here | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset |
The options
Option 1 · ← Mova's choice
A k sound, just like in the word "lock"
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 3 sound | det |
| 2 | k | k | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 sound | amod |
| 3 | sound | sound | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 4 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 9 word | punct |
| 5 | just | just | ADV | _ | 9 word | advmod |
| 6 | like | like | ADP | _ | 9 word | case |
| 7 | in | in | ADP | _ | 9 word | case |
| 8 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 9 word | det |
| 9 | word | word | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 sound | conj |
| 10 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 11 lock | punct |
| 11 | lock | lock | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 word | appos |
| 12 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 11 lock | punct |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 2
A sh sound, like "losh"
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 3 sound | det |
| 2 | sh | sh | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 sound | amod |
| 3 | sound | sound | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 4 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 7 losh | punct |
| 5 | like | like | ADP | _ | 7 losh | case |
| 6 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 7 losh | punct |
| 7 | losh | losh | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 sound | appos |
| 8 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 7 losh | punct |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 3
No sound at all
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | No | no | DET | PronType=Neg | 2 sound | det |
| 2 | sound | sound | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 3 | at | at | ADP | _ | 4 all | case |
| 4 | all | all | DET | PronType=Tot | 2 sound | nmod |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 4 · ✓ the right answer
A throaty sound, like old English gh
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 3 sound | det |
| 2 | throaty | throaty | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 sound | amod |
| 3 | sound | sound | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 4 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 3 sound | punct |
| 5 | like | like | ADP | _ | 8 gh | case |
| 6 | old | old | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 8 gh | amod |
| 7 | English | English | PROPN | Number=Sing | 8 gh | compound |
| 8 | gh | gh | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 sound | 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/language/13-silent-letters-and-the-mystery-of-ough/t2/