---
title: Were potatoes a thing back then, or what? — Irish Fairy Tales, Fin M'Coul and Cucu… · tree and pragmatics
description: Were potatoes a thing back then, or what? Test 12 · ★ of lesson 2010 «Irish Fairy Tales, Fin M'Coul and Cucullin, part 29: Oonagh tricks the giant with iron cakes» of the books course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and of each option; Mova's choice 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/2010-pg7885-part29/t12/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [questions](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/) / [Books](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/) / [Irish Fairy Tales, Fin M'Coul and Cucu…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/2010-pg7885-part29/) / t12

# Test 12 · ★ · Irish Fairy Tales, Fin M'Coul and Cucullin, part 29: Oonag…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Were potatoes a thing back then, or what?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 2 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** potatoes · **What happens:** be

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 12 · ★ of lesson 2010 «Irish Fairy Tales, Fin M'Coul and Cucullin, part 29: Oonagh tricks the giant with iron cakes» 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/2010-pg7885-part29/#t12).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:2010-pg7885-part29:t12:1
# text = Were potatoes a thing back then, or what?
1	Were	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	potatoes	potato	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	1	nsubj	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	nsubj	_	_
5	back	back	ADV	RB	_	1	advmod	_	_
6	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	9	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	1	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | potatoes |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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 · ← Mova's choice {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
No, potatoes not invented yet, so there were none at all

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:2010-pg7885-part29:t12:o1:1
# text = No, potatoes not invented yet, so there were none at all
1	No	no	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Neg	3	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	potatoes	potato	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nsubj	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	invented	invent	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	acl	_	_
6	yet	yet	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	so	so	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
9	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	10	expl	_	_
10	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
11	none	none	PRON	NN	PronType=Neg	0	root	_	_
12	at	at	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	11	nmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **invent** | participle |  | potatoes *not said here* |  |  | yet |  | vn create-26.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** | past | potatoes | none |  | all |  |  | tree rules |

### Option 2 · ✓ the right answer {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
No, potatoes not invented yet

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:2010-pg7885-part29:t12:o2:1
# text = No, potatoes not invented yet
1	No	no	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Neg	3	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	potatoes	potato	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	invented	invent	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	acl	_	_
6	yet	yet	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **invent** | participle |  | potatoes *not said here* |  |  | yet |  | vn create-26.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Yes, they grew wild here

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:2010-pg7885-part29:t12:o3:1
# text = Yes, they grew wild here
1	Yes	yes	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Pos	4	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	wild	wild	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	xcomp	_	_
6	here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **grow** | past | they |  |  | here |  | wild *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
No, potatoes were not invented yet in that time

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:2010-pg7885-part29:t12:o4:1
# text = No, potatoes were not invented yet in that time
1	No	no	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Neg	3	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	potatoes	potato	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux:pass	_	_
5	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
6	invented	invent	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
7	yet	yet	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	10	det	_	_
10	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **invent** | past · passive |  | potatoes |  |  | yet; time |  | vn create-26.4-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Result |

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [Irish Fairy Tales, Fin M'Coul and Cucu…, test 11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/2010-pg7885-part29/t11/)
- next →: [Irish Fairy Tales, Fin M'Coul and Cucu…, test 13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/2010-pg7885-part29/t13/)
- ↑ back to [Irish Fairy Tales, Fin M'Coul and Cucullin, part 29: Oonagh tricks the giant with iron cakes](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/2010-pg7885-part29/)