Silent letters and the mystery of -ough

Tests: 7 of 11 right · Exam: 1 of 4 right · Kind: plain · Understood: 7 of 15 · Run: 2026-10-18, commit f3c23ea72

Lesson 13 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 · right ✓

Your mate goes "silent letters were invented just to annoy kids, no cap." What's the truth?

1. Most are old sounds that wore away, and a few were added to look like Latin — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 5
2. He's right, they were all added just for school spelling tests — no support
3. They are spoken in posh accents — score 5
4. They were all printing mistakes — no support

Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 1 with score 5, tied with another option at 5 (the first shown, or the one claiming less beyond what it knows, wins). Its support: lesson 13, line 1: «A silent letter is written but not said, like the k in knee or the b in lamb; most of them are fossils of sounds people really said hundreds of years ago, befo…», reached through the same lesson line as the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same action «wear away» (+2); the same doer «sounds» (+2); the same property (+1). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 2 · wrong ✗

A Scottish gran says "It's dreich, the loch's all grey." What sound does "ch" in loch make?

1. A k sound, just like in the word "lock" — ← Mova's choice · score 6
2. A sh sound, like "losh" — score 6
3. No sound at all — score 6
4. A throaty sound, like old English gh — ✓ the right answer · score 6

Why: It took the question to ask who or what does it. It chose option 1 with score 6, tied with another option at 6 (the first shown, or the one claiming less beyond what it knows, wins). Its support: lesson 13, line 4: «The letters -ough are the champions of chaos: though, through, tough, cough, bough and thought all say -ough differently, because old sounds changed in differe…», reached through the remembered sentence the question matched. What matched: it fills the role the question asks for (+4); the same doer «old sounds» (+2). The right option, 4, scored 6. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 3 · wrong ✗

Your cousin reads "though, through, tough" out loud as "thuff, thruff, tuff". Which is right?

1. Only "thruff" — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. None of them — no support
3. Only "tuff" is right — ✓ the right answer · no support
4. All three are right — 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 · right ✓

What would happen if English spelling followed speech exactly?

1. Knee would be "nee" and lamb "lam" — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · no support
2. All words would get longer — no support
3. Nothing, because English already spells every word as it sounds — no support
4. Only names would change — 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 Gen Alpha kid says "Wednesday's d is skibidi random." ("Skibidi" is a word kids shout that means nothing here.) What's the truth?

1. It's random, nobody knows why the d is there at all — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. It comes from Woden's day, an old god's name — ✓ the right answer · no support
3. It was added in 2010 — no support
4. It's there to make it rhyme with Monday — 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 ✓

An American tourist says "Wor-ces-ter-shire" letter by letter. A local laughs. How do locals say it?

1. WUSS-ter-sher — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · no support
2. War-chester-shire — no support
3. WOR-kes-ter-shire — no support
4. WOR-sester-shire — 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 7 · right ✓

Your brother says "every silent letter was once spoken." Which word proves him wrong?

1. island — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 6
2. knight — score 6
3. knee — score 6
4. write — no support

Why: It took the question to ask who or what does it. It chose option 1 with score 6, tied with another option at 6 (the first shown, or the one claiming less beyond what it knows, wins). Its support: lesson 10, line 12: «An apostrophe shows missing letters or belonging, never just a plural.», reached through the remembered sentence the question matched. What matched: the same thing acted on «missing letters» (+4); the same action «show» (+2). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 8 · right ✓

In a cartoon, a knight says "Ka-nig-ht" with every letter. Which is true?

1. It was always said "nite" — score 5
2. It's said that way in America today — no support
3. Nobody has ever said the k in knight, not even a thousand years ago — score 5
4. Long ago people did say the k and the gh, though not exactly like that — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 6

Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 4 with score 6, against 5 for the next best. Its support: lesson 13, line 8: «In Old English, knee was cnēow and was said with a k; people stopped saying the k at the start of words around the 1600s; German Knie still has a spoken k.», reached through the remembered sentence the question matched. What matched: the same action «say» (+4); the same thing acted on «k» (+2). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 9 · right ✓

A boomer grandad from Cornwall, proper gurt keen on puzzles ("gurt" means very), asks: how many of "knee, wrist, lamb, water, bough" have a silent letter?

1. Four: knee, wrist, lamb, bough — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · no support
2. Three: knee, wrist, lamb — no support
3. Five: all of them — no support
4. Two: knee and lamb — 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 ✗

Your mate says doubt is spelt "doute" in very old books. Could that be true?

1. No, the b was always there and always spoken out loud — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. No, doubt is a new word — no support
3. Yes, but only in America — no support
4. Yes, the b was added later by scholars — ✓ 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 11 · right ✓

Puzzle: which -ough word rhymes with "off"?

1. cough — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · no support
2. though — no support
3. through — no support
4. bough — 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 ✓

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the majority of silent letters in English?

1. They are pronounced in all formal registers — no support
2. They are vestiges of sounds formerly pronounced, retained in spelling after the sounds were lost — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 6
3. They are errors of contemporary printers — score 6
4. They were introduced in order to render instruction more difficult — no support

Why: It took the question to ask who or what does it. It chose option 2 with score 6, tied with another option at 6 (the first shown, or the one claiming less beyond what it knows, wins). Its support: lesson 7, line 1: «English has four kinds of sentence: a statement tells (The cake is huge.), a question asks (What is that cake?), a command tells someone to do something (Eat t…», reached through the remembered sentence the question matched. What matched: it fills the role the question asks for (+4); the same doer «statement» (+2). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Exam question 2 · formal language · wrong ✗

Identify the principal reason for which the letter "s" appears in the word "island".

1. Scholars of the sixteenth century erroneously associated the word with "isle" and "insula" — ✓ the right answer · no support
2. The word is a compound of "is" and "land" — no support
3. The letter denotes the plural number — ← Mova's choice · score 5
4. The letter was pronounced throughout the Old English period — no support

Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 3 with score 5, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 12, line 14: «Text speak shortens words with letters and numbers that sound like them: c (see), u (you), l8r (later), m8 (mate).», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same thing acted on «letters» (+4); the same doer «letters» (+2). Against it: a different action (counts against) (-1). The right option, 1, found no support in what it remembers. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Exam question 3 · formal language · wrong ✗

Select the response consistent with the established facts concerning the word "Wednesday".

1. It derives from a French word meaning the middle of the week — ← Mova's choice · score 6
2. It derives from "Woden's day", the silent "d" reflecting its origin — ✓ the right answer · no support
3. The "d" is pronounced in standard British English — no support
4. Its spelling is the result of a recent error — score 6

Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 1 with score 6, tied with another option at 6 (the first shown, or the one claiming less beyond what it knows, wins). Its support: lesson 1, line 3: «Most words have no natural link to what they mean: English says "cat", Ukrainian says "кіт", and neither is the cat's true name; each group of speakers simply…», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same action «mean» (+4); the same doer «word» (+2). The right option, 2, found no support in what it remembers. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Exam question 4 · formal language · wrong ✗

Ascertain which of the following words rhymes with "cow".

1. cough — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. tough — no support
3. bough — ✓ the right answer · no support
4. though — 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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