Test 1 · ★★ · Tenses: past, present and future
Your mate writes "Last week we play footy and we win 3-0." What tense should he use?
Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: mate, we, tense · What happens: write, play, win, use · To what, where: footy, 3-0 · Speech: someone speaks here
This is test 1 · ★★ of lesson 8 «Tenses: past, present and future» 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 mate writes "Last week we play footy and we win 3-0."
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 mate | nmod:poss |
| 2 | mate | mate | 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 play | punct |
| 5 | Last | last | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 6 week | amod |
| 6 | week | week | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 play | obl:unmarked |
| 7 | we | we | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs | 8 play | nsubj |
| 8 | play | play | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 3 writes | ccomp |
| 9 | footy | footy | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 play | obj |
| 10 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 12 win | cc |
| 11 | we | we | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs | 12 win | nsubj |
| 12 | win | win | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 8 play | conj |
| 13 | 3-0 | 3-0 | NUM | NumForm=Digit NumType=Card | 12 win | obj |
| 14 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 8 play | punct |
| 15 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 8 play | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | write | present | Your mate | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 2 | play in a quote | present | we | footy | week | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent footy=Theme | |||
| 3 | win in a quote | present | we | 3-0 | vn succeed-74-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent 3-0=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: What tense should he use?
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | What | what | DET | PronType=Int | 2 tense | det |
| 2 | tense | tense | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 use | nsubj |
| 3 | should | should | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 5 use | aux |
| 4 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 5 use | nsubj |
| 5 | use | use | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | root | root |
| 6 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 5 use | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | use | should | what tense | vn eat-39.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
The options
Option 1 · ← Mova's choice
The present: we plays and wins
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 2 present | det |
| 2 | present | present | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 3 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 5 plays | punct |
| 4 | we | we | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs | 5 plays | nsubj |
| 5 | plays | play | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 2 present | acl:relcl |
| 6 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 7 wins | cc |
| 7 | wins | win | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 5 plays | conj |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | play | present | we | the present not said here | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent present=Theme | ||||
| 2 | win | present | we not said here | vn succeed-74-2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
Option 2
It's fine, "last week" already shows the time
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 fine | expl |
| 2 | 's | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 3 fine | cop |
| 3 | fine | fine | ADJ | Degree=Pos | root | root |
| 4 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 10 shows | punct |
| 5 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 7 week | punct |
| 6 | last | last | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 7 week | amod |
| 7 | week | week | NOUN | Number=Sing | 10 shows | obl |
| 8 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 7 week | punct |
| 9 | already | already | ADV | _ | 10 shows | advmod |
| 10 | shows | show | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 3 fine | conj |
| 11 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 12 time | det |
| 12 | time | time | NOUN | Number=Sing | 10 shows | obj |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | present | fine property | tree rules | |||||
| 2 | show | present | time; week | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
Option 3
The future: we will play and win
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 2 future | det |
| 2 | future | future | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 3 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 6 play | punct |
| 4 | we | we | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs | 6 play | nsubj |
| 5 | will | will | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 6 play | aux |
| 6 | play | play | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 2 future | acl:relcl |
| 7 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 8 win | cc |
| 8 | win | win | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 6 play | conj |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | play | future | we | the future not said here | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent future=Theme | ||||
| 2 | win | infinitive | we not said here | vn succeed-74-2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
Option 4 · ✓ the right answer
The past: we played and we won
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 2 past | det |
| 2 | past | past | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 played | nsubj |
| 3 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 5 played | punct |
| 4 | we | we | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs | 5 played | nsubj |
| 5 | played | play | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 6 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 8 won | cc |
| 7 | we | we | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs | 8 won | nsubj |
| 8 | won | win | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 5 played | conj |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | play | past | the past | vn performance-26.7-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 2 | win | past | we | vn succeed-74-2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
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/8-tenses-past-present-future/t1/