---
title: and they told the Sultan it was a puppy?! — Persian Tales, The Sultan Kosrouschah,… · tree and pragmatics
description: and they told the Sultan it was a puppy?! Test 9 · ★ of lesson 227 «Persian Tales, The Sultan Kosrouschah, part 67: three sisters' wishes come true, and the cradles float away» of the books course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and of each option; M
---

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# Test 9 · ★ · Persian Tales, The Sultan Kosrouschah, part 67: three sist…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
and they told the Sultan it was a puppy?!

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 2 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** they, Sultan · **What happens:** tell, be · **To what, where:** Sultan, puppy · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 9 · ★ of lesson 227 «Persian Tales, The Sultan Kosrouschah, part 67: three sisters' wishes come true, and the cradles float away» 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/227-pg128-part67/#t9).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:227-pg128-part67:t9:1
# text = and they told the Sultan it was a puppy?!
1	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	Sultan	Sultan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	iobj	_	_
6	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
7	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	puppy	puppy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	?!	?!	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | they |  | the Sultan |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent sultan=Recipient |
| 2 | **is a** | past | Sultan | a puppy |  |  |  |  | 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 · ← Mova's choice {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
nah, they said it was a goat

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:227-pg128-part67:t9:o1:1
# text = nah, they said it was a goat
1	nah	nah	INTJ	UH	_	4	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	goat	goat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	ccomp	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | they |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** | past | it | a goat |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
yeah, that's what they said

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:227-pg128-part67:t9:o2:1
# text = yeah, that's what they said
1	yeah	yeah	INTJ	UH	_	5	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
3	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	5	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	's	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
5	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	0	root	_	_
6	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	acl:relcl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | that |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | they |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
yeah, they said a lamb

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:227-pg128-part67:t9:o3:1
# text = yeah, they said a lamb
1	yeah	yeah	INTJ	UH	_	4	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	lamb	lamb	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | they | a lamb |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent lamb=Topic |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
nah, they lied

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:227-pg128-part67:t9:o4:1
# text = nah, they lied
1	nah	nah	INTJ	UH	_	4	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	lied	lie	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lie** | past | they |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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: [Persian Tales, The Sultan Kosrouschah,…, test 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/227-pg128-part67/t8/)
- next →: [Persian Tales, The Sultan Kosrouschah,…, test 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/227-pg128-part67/t10/)
- ↑ back to [Persian Tales, The Sultan Kosrouschah, part 67: three sisters' wishes come true, and the cradles float away](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/227-pg128-part67/)