Grammar puzzles, part one
Tests: 5 of 11 right · Exam: 1 of 4 right · Kind: ★★ · Understood: 5 of 15 · Run: 2026-10-18, commit f3c23ea72
Lesson 11 of the language 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 goes "easy, there's four nouns in 'the dog chased the cat into the garden', 'cos 'chased' is a thing." What's wrong?
- 1. There are 2 nouns, garden is a place — ← Mova's choice · no support
- 2. There are 5 nouns, 'into' is one too — no support
- 3. Chased is a verb; there are 3 nouns — ✓ the right answer · no support
- 4. Nothing, there are 4 nouns — 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 2 · ★★ · right ✓
A Gen Alpha kid says "'The old man the boat' is giving broken English, it's mid." ("Mid" means not good.) Is it broken?
- 1. Yes, it has no verb at all — score 6
- 2. No, "old" is the verb — no support
- 3. Yes, it should be "The old man rows the boat" — no support
- 4. No, "man" is the verb: old people crew the boat — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 7
Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 4 with score 7, against 6 for the next best. Its support: lesson 11, line 7: «In "The old man the boat", "man" is the verb meaning to crew; a sentence that tricks you into reading it wrongly at first is called a garden-path sentence.», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same thing acted on «verb» (+4); the same doer «man» (+2); the same light verb (be, have, do, get, go) (+1). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Test 3 · ★★ · right ✓
A teacher asks "Turn 'The dog has eaten' into a question." Which is right?
- 1. Does the dog has eaten? — no support
- 2. Has the dog eaten? — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 6
- 3. The dog eaten has it? — no support
- 4. Is the dog has eaten? — no support
Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 2 with score 6, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 1, line 4: «Every language has grammar, the rules for fitting words together; "The dog ate the bone" makes sense, "Dog the bone the ate" makes people laugh, and the speake…», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same action «eat» (+4); the same doer «dog» (+2). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Test 4 · ★★ · right ✓
Your cousin says "the verb always agrees with the nearest noun, innit, so 'each of the boys have'." What's right?
- 1. Each of the boy have — no support
- 2. Each of the boys has; the subject is each — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 6
- 3. He's right, "have" agrees with "boys", the nearest noun — no support
- 4. Each of the boys haves — no support
Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 2 with score 6, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 11, line 11: «"Each of the boys has a bike" is correct, because "each" is the subject and means one at a time.», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same thing acted on «subject» (+4); the same doer «each» (+2). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Test 5 · ★★ · wrong ✗
What would happen if we wrote lists with no commas at all?
- 1. Every list would become a question — ← Mova's choice · no support
- 2. Lists would become longer — no support
- 3. Some lists would accidentally say odd things, like cooking your dog — ✓ the right answer · no support
- 4. Nothing, because commas never change what a sentence means — 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 · ★★ · wrong ✗
A wee lad from Edinburgh says "Ken how mony verbs in 'I can swim'? Jist the wan, aye?" ("Ken" means do you know, "wan" means one.) Is he right?
- 1. Yes, only swim — no support
- 2. Yes, only can — no support
- 3. No, there are three: I, can, swim — ← Mova's choice · score 8
- 4. No, there are two: can and swim — ✓ the right answer · score 8
Why: It took the question to ask what something is like. It chose option 3 with score 8, tied with another option at 8 (the first shown, or the one claiming less beyond what it knows, wins). Its support: lesson 3, line 4: «Verbs work in teams: in "I can swim", can is a helping (modal) verb and swim is the main verb; and the verb must match its doer, so it is "he goes" but "they g…», reached through the remembered sentence the question matched. What matched: the same action «swim» (+4); the same doer «verb» (+4). The right option, 4, scored 8. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Test 7 · ★★ · right ✓
In a cartoon, a detective says "I saw the thief with binoculars" and arrests the man holding binoculars. Why could he be wrong?
- 1. The detective might have used the binoculars himself — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · no support
- 2. Thieves never carry binoculars — no support
- 3. Binoculars is a plural-only noun — no support
- 4. The sentence has no verb — 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 ✗
A boomer gran says "Neither the twins nor Tom is coming, dear." Is that right?
- 1. No, neither always takes "am" — ← Mova's choice · no support
- 2. No, it must be "are" because the twins are two people — no support
- 3. Yes, the verb agrees with Tom, the closer subject — ✓ the right answer · no support
- 4. Yes, but only because she's a gran — 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 ✗
Puzzle: how many of these are verbs? "jump, happy, think, quickly, is"
- 1. 2 — ← Mova's choice · no support
- 2. 4 — no support
- 3. 5 — no support
- 4. 3 — ✓ 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
Test 10 · ★★ · wrong ✗
Puzzle: in a made-up language, "nuk" means fish (one), "nukki" means fish (many), "dar" means bird (one). What does "darri" mean?
- 1. one fish and one bird — ← Mova's choice · score 4
- 2. a bird's nest — no support
- 3. a big bird — no support
- 4. birds — ✓ the right answer · no support
Why: It took the question to ask what it is done to. It chose option 1 with score 4, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 9, line 13: «"I seen" is common in many British, Irish and American dialects; standard English says "I saw" or "I have seen". A chippy is a fish and chip shop.», reached through the remembered sentence the question matched. What matched: it fills the role the question asks for (+4); the same thing acted on «fish» (+2). Against it: a different doer (counts against) (-2). The right option, 4, found no support in what it remembers. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Test 11 · ★★ · right ✓
Your mate says "'The complex houses married and single soldiers' is nonsense." (Here a complex is a group of buildings.) What is the verb?
- 1. houses, meaning gives homes to — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · no support
- 2. complex — no support
- 3. soldiers — no support
- 4. married — 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 · right ✓
Ascertain the number of nouns contained within the sentence "The dog chased the cat into the garden".
- 1. Three — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · no support
- 2. Five — no support
- 3. Four — no support
- 4. Two — 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 word functioning as the verb in the sentence "The old man the boat".
- 1. the — ← Mova's choice · no support
- 2. boat — no support
- 3. man — ✓ the right answer · no support
- 4. old — 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 ✗
Select the formulation consistent with the rules of agreement in standard English.
- 1. Each of the boys have a bicycle — ← Mova's choice · no support
- 2. Each one of the boy have a bicycle — no support
- 3. Each of the boys has a bicycle — ✓ the right answer · no support
- 4. Each of the boys are having bicycles — 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
Exam question 4 · formal language · wrong ✗
In respect of the sentence "Neither the cat nor the dogs ___ hungry", determine the verb form required by the rule of proximity.
- 1. was — ← Mova's choice · no support
- 2. be — no support
- 3. is — no support
- 4. are — ✓ 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
This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/language/11-grammar-puzzles-part-one/