Borrowed words: French, Norse and Latin

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

Lesson 23 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 "the Vikings just smashed stuff, they never left any words, bruv." What's true?

1. They only left swear words, which is why we don't learn them at school — score 3
2. English got everyday words like "sky", "egg" and "they" from them — ✓ the right answer · score 4
3. They only left names of weapons — score 3
4. He's right, not a single Viking word survived in English, they all vanished — ← Mova's choice · score 5

Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 4 with score 5, against 4 for the next best. Its support: lesson 12, line 3: «Little helpers live inside big words: definitely has "finite" in the middle (de-finite-ly), and there's "a rat" in sep-a-rat-e; "too" has one o too many, becau…», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same action «live» (+3); the same place «big words» (+2). The right option, 2, scored 4. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 2 · ★ · wrong ✗

Gran says "Mayday is a call about May Day, love, the spring holiday." Is she right?

1. Yes, it means "a nice day" — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. Yes, it was first shouted on the first of May — no support
3. No, it comes from French "m'aider", help me — ✓ the right answer · no support
4. No, it comes from Latin "maximus" — 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 3 · ★ · wrong ✗

Your Aussie cousin says "brekkie at 7 a.m., means after midnight, yeah?" ("Brekkie" means breakfast.) What does a.m. really mean?

1. Any minute — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. After midday — no support
3. After midnight — no support
4. Before midday — ✓ 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 4 · ★ · wrong ✗

What would happen if no French words had entered English?

1. English would have no words for any kind of food at all, not even "bread" — ← Mova's choice · score 8
2. Words like "beef", "menu" and "chef" would be missing — ✓ the right answer · score 6
3. English would be Latin — score 6
4. English would sound exactly the same, because French gave it nothing — score 4

Why: It took the question to ask what happens next. It chose option 1 with score 8, against 6 for the next best. Its support: lesson 23, line 6: «After 1066 English kept its animal words (cow, pig, sheep) but took French meat words: beef from "bœuf", pork from "porc", mutton from "mouton".», reached through what followed the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same doer «english» (+4); the same thing acted on «french meat words» (+4). The right option, 2, scored 6. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 5 · ★ · wrong ✗

Leo reckons a printer in the 1400s made up the egg story to be funny. What does the story really show?

1. Nobody in England ate eggs in the 1400s, so nobody knew the word — ← Mova's choice · score 2
2. English was exactly the same everywhere in England back then, town by town — no support
3. People in different parts of England once used different words — ✓ the right answer · score 2
4. Printers did not know English — no support

Why: It took the question to ask what it is done to. It chose option 1 with score 2, tied with another option at 2 (the first shown, or the one claiming less beyond what it knows, wins). Its support: lesson 23, line 10: «The printer William Caxton told a story from the 1400s: a woman in the south did not understand a man asking for "eggys", but understood "eyren", the southern…», reached through the same lesson line as the sentence the question matched. What matched: it fills the role the question asks for (+3); the same thing acted on «eyren» (+2). Against it: a different doer (counts against) (-1); a different action (counts against) (-2). The right option, 3, scored 2. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 6 · ★ · wrong ✗

A cartoon says "the word bus means BIG CAR in Old English!" What's the truth?

1. It's from French "bus", meaning road — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. It's right, Old English had buses — no support
3. It's short for "business" — no support
4. It's clipped from Latin "omnibus", for everyone — ✓ 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 7 · ★ · right ✓

Mo's big sis says "video is a new word, Latin's dead so it can't give us words." What's fair?

1. Video comes from Japanese, like "emoji" and "karaoke" — no support
2. Latin still gives English words, even for new technology — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 7
3. Video was invented by a TV company — no support
4. She's right, dead languages can never give any language new words — score -2

Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 2 with score 7, against -2 for the next best. Its support: lesson 23, line 4: «Latin, the old language of Rome and of European learning, keeps giving words too: "video", "audio", "a.m." and "bus" all come from it.», reached through the remembered sentence the question matched. What matched: the same action «give» (+3); the same doer «latin» (+2); the same thing acted on «words» (+2). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 8 · ★ · wrong ✗

Zara's mate from Glasgow says "aye, croissant's a pure Scottish word, ken." ("Ken" means you know.) What's true?

1. It's Scottish from the 1900s — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. It's Latin for bread — no support
3. It's a French food word — ✓ the right answer · no support
4. It's Norse — 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 of these is a clipping, like "bus" from "omnibus"?

1. Window from vindauga — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. Phone from telephone — ✓ the right answer · no support
3. Sky from Old Norse — no support
4. Beef from bœuf — 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 ✗

Why is it surprising that English borrowed "they" from the Vikings?

1. Vikings never used the word "they" — score 1
2. Small everyday words like that are rarely borrowed — ✓ the right answer · no support
3. "They" is a French word — score 2
4. English had no people in it — ← Mova's choice · score 3

Why: It took the question to ask why something happens (its cause). It chose option 4 with score 3, against 2 for the next best. Its support: lesson 22, line 18: «Mandarin Chinese has the most native speakers (people who learned it from birth); English has the most speakers in total if you count people who learned it lat…», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same doer «english» (+1); the same thing acted on «most speakers» (+1); the same light verb (be, have, do, get, go) (+1). The right option, 2, found no support in what it remembers. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 11 · ★ · wrong ✗

Your mate says "English is pure, mate, no foreign words." What's the best way to describe English?

1. A dialect of Latin — no support
2. A mixing bowl: an Old English core with lots of borrowed words — ✓ the right answer · no support
3. A dialect of French that lost its spelling rules after the year 1066 — no support
4. A pure language with no borrowings at all, just as it was 1,500 years ago — ← Mova's choice · score -1

Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 4 with score -1, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 9, line 4: «Some forms are patchwork from history: "went" was once the past of an old verb "wend" (to go), and English borrowed it for go hundreds of years ago.», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same property (+1). Against it: the same doer «english» (-1); a different thing acted on (counts against) (-1). The right option, 2, found no support in what it remembers. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Exam question 1 · formal language · wrong ✗

Identify the principal reason for which English designates the animal "cow" but its flesh "beef".

1. Both terms derive from Old Norse, the former denoting the living beast and the latter its flesh when cooked — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. The term "beef" was devised by mediaeval butchers' guilds in order to distinguish their trade from that of farmers — no support
3. Following 1066, French-speaking nobility consumed the meat while English-speaking labourers tended the livestock — ✓ the right answer · no support
4. The term "cow" is of Latin origin — 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 ✗

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the word "they"?

1. It is of Latin origin and entered the language via the Church and its scholars — score 2
2. It has existed unchanged in English since prehistory — score 3
3. It was borrowed from Old Norse, the language of the Viking settlers — ✓ the right answer · score 7
4. It was introduced by the Normans in 1066 together with words for law and food — ← Mova's choice · score 10

Why: It took the question to ask who or what does it. It chose option 4 with score 10, against 7 for the next best. Its support: lesson 23, line 8: «"Shirt" and "skirt" began as the same old word: "shirt" is the English form and "skirt" the Norse form.», reached through the remembered sentence the question matched. What matched: the same thing acted on «english form» (+4); the same circumstance (+4); a different doer (counts against) (+2). The right option, 3, scored 7. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Exam question 3 · formal language · right ✓

State the meaning of the abbreviation "p.m." pursuant to its Latin origin.

1. After midday — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · no support
2. After midnight — no support
3. Before midday — no support
4. Past morning — 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 ✗

Select the response consistent with the established facts concerning the composition of English vocabulary.

1. English vocabulary is entirely of Old English origin — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. English vocabulary is entirely of French origin — no support
3. A majority of dictionary words derive from Latin and French, whereas the commonest words are chiefly Old English — ✓ the right answer · no support
4. Borrowed words are confined to scientific terminology — 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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