---
title: Did the servant spot his boots were dodgy? — Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Tinder-Box… · tree and pragmatics
description: Did the servant spot his boots were dodgy? Test 9 · ★ of lesson 1737 «Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Tinder-Box, part 61: a Soldier gets rich from three dogs and a witch's trick» of the books course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and of each option; Mo
---

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# Test 9 · ★ · Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Tinder-Box, part 61: a Soldier…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Did the servant spot his boots were dodgy?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 2 · **The right answer:** option 2 · right ✓ · **Who acts:** servant, boots · **What happens:** spot, be

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 9 · ★ of lesson 1737 «Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Tinder-Box, part 61: a Soldier gets rich from three dogs and a witch's trick» of the books 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](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/books/1737-pg640-part61/#t9).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1737-pg640-part61:t9:1
# text = Did the servant spot his boots were dodgy?
1	Did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	servant	servant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	spot	spot	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	boots	boot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nsubj	_	_
7	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
8	dodgy	dodgy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **spot** | past · do-support | the servant |  |  |  |  |  | vn weather-57 «It V PP.theme» |
| 2 | **is** | past | servant's boots |  |  |  |  | dodgy *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .note -->
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.

## The options {#options}

### Option 1 {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Dunno, bruv

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1737-pg640-part61:t9:o1:1
# text = Dunno, bruv
1	Dunno	Dunno	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
3	bruv	bruv	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	appos	_	_
```

<!-- .note -->
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

### Option 2 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Yeah, they were proper old, innit

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1737-pg640-part61:t9:o2:1
# text = Yeah, they were proper old, innit
1	Yeah	yeah	INTJ	UH	_	6	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
4	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
5	proper	proper	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
8	innit	innit	INTJ	UH	_	6	discourse	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | they |  |  |  |  | old *property* | tree rules |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Yeah, they were proper old and falling apart, innit, pure ancient

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1737-pg640-part61:t9:o3:1
# text = Yeah, they were proper old and falling apart, innit, pure ancient
1	Yeah	yeah	INTJ	UH	_	6	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
4	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
5	proper	proper	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	falling	fall	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	conj	_	_
9	apart	apart	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
11	innit	innit	INTJ	UH	_	6	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	pure	pure	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	ancient	ancient	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	conj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | they |  |  |  |  | old *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **fall apart** | gerund | they *not said here* |  |  |  |  | apart *property* | vn break\_down-45.8 «NP V»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **be** |  | they *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Nah, they were just dusty, innit

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1737-pg640-part61:t9:o4:1
# text = Nah, they were just dusty, innit
1	Nah	nah	INTJ	UH	_	6	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
4	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
5	just	just	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	dusty	dusty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
8	innit	innit	INTJ	UH	_	6	discourse	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | they |  |  |  |  | dusty *property* | tree rules |

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**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.

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- ← previous: [Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Tinder-Box…, test 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1737-pg640-part61/t8/)
- next →: [Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Tinder-Box…, test 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1737-pg640-part61/t10/)
- ↑ back to [Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Tinder-Box, part 61: a Soldier gets rich from three dogs and a witch's trick](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1737-pg640-part61/)