Le, la, un, une: every word is a boy or a girl

Tests: 3 of 11 right · Exam: 0 of 4 right · Kind: ★★ · Understood: 3 of 15 · Run: 2026-10-18, commit f3c23ea72

Lesson 25 of the french course of Mova's primary school, as Mova's small model took its tests: it had read this lesson and the ones before it and learned from their exercises. Each test shows the options in the order the student saw them, its choice, the right answer, the score of every option and why it chose. The lesson itself, sentence by sentence with trees and pragmatics: the lesson in the corpora.

Every question of this lesson and each of its options parsed by Mova, with trees and pragmatics: the lesson's questions in the corpora.

Test 1 · ★★ · wrong ✗

Your mate from Leeds goes, "Easy, mate: boys' things are le, girls' things are la." What do you tell him?

1. He's right, a car is la because girls drive — no support
2. Nobody knows, French people just guess — no support
3. He's right, a football is le because boys play it — ← Mova's choice · score 12
4. Gender is about the word: une personne is la even for a man — ✓ the right answer · no support

Why: It took the question to ask what it is done to. It chose option 3 with score 12, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 11, line 1: «A French date is a little recipe: le, then the number, then the month, so the 14th of October is le quatorze octobre.», reached through the remembered sentence the question matched. What matched: it fills the role the question asks for (+6); the same thing acted on «little recipe» (+4); the same light verb (be, have, do, get, go) (+2). The right option, 4, found no support in what it remembers. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 2 · ★★ · right ✓

★★ Theo says "-ette means girl and -ment means boy, proper job." Using the clue, what is la chaussette?

1. A building, a masculine word ending in -ment — score 4
2. A boy's shoe, a masculine word — no support
3. A sock, a feminine word ending in -ette — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 6
4. A girl named Chaussette — no support

Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 3 with score 6, against 4 for the next best. Its support: lesson 17, line 3: «Word endings give hints about gender: words ending in -eau, like un chapeau (a hat) and un manteau (a coat), are almost always masculine, and words ending in -…», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same action «end» (+2); the same doer «words» (+2); the same place «ette» (+2). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 3 · ★★ · wrong ✗

Ruby from Belfast says, "Sun's a fella, moon's a girl, so every language does it like that, so it is." Is she right?

1. Yes, because the sun is stronger than the moon — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. No, German does it the other way round — ✓ the right answer · no support
3. Yes, every language with gender agrees — no support
4. No, French makes the sun feminine too — no support

Why: No option found support in what it remembers, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 4 · ★★ · wrong ✗

★★ Harry has learned "-age is le". His teacher writes a sentence about the beach. Which should he write?

1. les plage, because beaches are big — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. le plage, following the rule — no support
3. la plage, a famous exception — ✓ the right answer · no support
4. l'plage, because of the vowel — no support

Why: No option found support in what it remembers, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 5 · ★★ · wrong ✗

★★ A new word on a sign: bâtiment. Without a dictionary, which is most likely?

1. la bâtiment, with the feminine ending -ment — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. les bâtiment, because buildings are plural — no support
3. le bâtiment, with the masculine ending -ment — ✓ the right answer · no support
4. la bâtimente, adding an e for a building — no support

Why: No option found support in what it remembers, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 6 · ★★ · right ✓

What would happen if you asked a French shop for "un livre de pommes"?

1. They'd show you the way to the library — no support
2. They'd hear "a book of apples", not "a pound of apples" — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 2
3. They'd give you half a kilo of apples — no support
4. They'd give you a bag of apples for free — no support

Why: It took the question to ask what happens next. It chose option 2 with score 2, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 25, line 15: «A few words change meaning with gender: un livre is a book and une livre is a pound; un tour is a trip and une tour is a tower, like la tour Eiffel.», reached through what followed the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same thing acted on «book» (+4). Against it: a different doer (counts against) (-2). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 7 · ★★ · right ✓

★★★ Ollie's sister lists five -eau words: bateau, gâteau, eau, château, peau. How many are feminine?

1. Two: eau and peau — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · no support
2. None: all -eau words are masculine — no support
3. One: only eau — no support
4. Three: eau, peau and château — no support

Why: No option found support in what it remembers, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 8 · ★★ · wrong ✗

Mia from Ohio goes, "Okay, it's giving - so my bike's a girl too, une vélo." (it's giving = it seems like) Fix it.

1. la vélo: you must use la for bikes — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. une vélo: bikes are feminine like cars — no support
3. un vélo: bike is masculine, but une voiture — ✓ the right answer · no support
4. une vélot: you add a t for feminine — no support

Why: No option found support in what it remembers, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 9 · ★★ · wrong ✗

★★★ Which list is ALL feminine?

1. la question, le moment, la baguette, la page — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. la plage, le château, la voiture, l'eau — no support
3. la peau, la cage, le garage, la lune — no support
4. la question, la confiture, la baguette, la page — ✓ the right answer · no support

Why: Nothing it remembers matched the question, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 10 · ★★ · wrong ✗

Your cousin in Aberdeen says, "Ach, I'll just say le for everything, nae bother." What's the risk?

1. No risk, la is only for people's names — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. He'd often be wrong, and some words change meaning — ✓ the right answer · no support
3. No risk, French people always use le — no support
4. He'd be right, because le is the polite form — no support

Why: No option found support in what it remembers, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 11 · ★★ · wrong ✗

★★ In a cartoon, a knight says "Je vais à la tour" and rides to a tall castle building. Is that right?

1. No, la tour means a bike trip — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. Yes, une tour is a tower — ✓ the right answer · no support
3. No, it should be le tour for a tower — no support
4. Yes, la tour means a horse ride — no support

Why: No option found support in what it remembers, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Exam question 1 · formal language · wrong ✗

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises grammatical gender in French?

1. A property governed by the size of the referent — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. A property determined by the sex of the referent — no support
3. A property of each noun, independent of the sex of its referent — ✓ the right answer · no support
4. A property applied exclusively to persons and animals — no support

Why: No option found support in what it remembers, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Exam question 2 · formal language · wrong ✗

Identify the article appropriate to the noun "personne" where the person referred to is male.

1. l' — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. le — no support
3. les — no support
4. la — ✓ the right answer · no support

Why: No option found support in what it remembers, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Exam question 3 · formal language · wrong ✗

State which of the following nouns constitutes an exception to the general masculine gender of nouns ending in -age.

1. garage — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. voyage — no support
3. fromage — no support
4. plage — ✓ the right answer · no support

Why: No option found support in what it remembers, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Exam question 4 · formal language · wrong ✗

Ascertain the meaning of "livre" when preceded by the feminine article une.

1. A library — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. A book — no support
3. A pound — ✓ the right answer · no support
4. A letter — no support

Why: No option found support in what it remembers, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

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