Test 9 · Verbs: doing words and being words
Your brother writes "We should of left earlier." What should it be?
Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: brother, We, it · What happens: write, leave, be
This is test 9 of lesson 3 «Verbs: doing words and being words» 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: Your brother writes "We should of left earlier."
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Your | your | PRON | Case=Gen Person=2 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 2 brother | nmod:poss |
| 2 | brother | brother | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 writes | nsubj |
| 3 | writes | write | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 8 left | punct |
| 5 | We | we | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs | 8 left | nsubj |
| 6 | should | should | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 8 left | aux |
| 7 | of | of | SCONJ | _ | 8 left | mark |
| 8 | left | leave | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 3 writes | conj |
| 9 | earlier | early | ADV | Degree=Cmp | 8 left | advmod |
| 10 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 writes | punct |
| 11 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 3 writes | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | write | present | Your brother | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 2 | leave in a quote | should | We | early property | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
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 should it be?
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | What | what | PRON | PronType=Int | 4 be | obj |
| 2 | should | should | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 4 be | aux |
| 3 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 4 be | nsubj |
| 4 | be | be | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | root | root |
| 5 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 4 be | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | be | should | it | vn representation-110.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot what=Theme |
The options
Option 1 · ← Mova's choice
We should off left earlier
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 off | nsubj |
| 2 | should | should | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 3 off | aux |
| 3 | off | off | ADV | _ | root | root |
| 4 | left | left | ADV | _ | 5 earlier | advmod |
| 5 | earlier | early | ADV | Degree=Cmp | 3 off | advmod |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 2
We should of leaved earlier
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 | 4 leaved | nsubj:pass |
| 2 | should | should | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 4 leaved | aux |
| 3 | of | of | SCONJ | _ | 4 leaved | mark |
| 4 | leaved | leav | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| 5 | earlier | early | ADV | Degree=Cmp | 4 leaved | advmod |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | leav | should · passive | We | early property | tree rules |
Option 3 · ✓ the right answer
We should have left earlier
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 | 4 left | nsubj |
| 2 | should | should | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 4 left | aux |
| 3 | have | have | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 4 left | aux |
| 4 | left | leave | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | root | root |
| 5 | earlier | early | ADV | Degree=Cmp | 4 left | advmod |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | leave | should · perfect | We | early property | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
Option 4
We should has left earlier
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 | 4 left | nsubj |
| 2 | should | should | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 4 left | aux |
| 3 | has | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 4 left | aux |
| 4 | left | leave | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | root | root |
| 5 | earlier | early | ADV | Degree=Cmp | 4 left | advmod |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | leave | should · perfect | We | early property | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
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/3-verbs-doing-words-and-being-words/t9/