---
title: Real life: how many letters does English need, and how many characte… — Just So Stories, How the Alphabet Was… · tree and pragmatics
description: Real life: how many letters does English need, and how many characters does Chinese writing use? Test 8 · ★★ of lesson 88 «Just So Stories, How the Alphabet Was Made, part 2: yo, so, sho, shi, and shu-ya, the sky-water» of the books course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragm
---

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# Test 8 · ★★ · Just So Stories, How the Alphabet Was Made, part 2: yo, so…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Real life: how many letters does English need, and how many characters does Chinese writing use?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 1 · right ✓ · **Who acts:** many letters, many characters · **What happens:** need, do · **To what, where:** Chinese writing use

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 8 · ★★ of lesson 88 «Just So Stories, How the Alphabet Was Made, part 2: yo, so, sho, shi, and shu-ya, the sky-water» 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/88-justso-alphabet-2-shu-ya-sky-water/#t8).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:88-justso-alphabet-2-shu-ya-sky-water:t8:1
# text = Real life: how many letters does English need, and how many characters does Chinese writing use?
1	Real	real	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	amod	_	_
2	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	9	punct	_	_
4	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	5	advmod	_	_
5	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	letters	letter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nsubj	_	_
7	does	do	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
8	English	English	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
9	need	need	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
12	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	13	advmod	_	_
13	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	characters	character	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nsubj	_	_
15	does	do	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
16	Chinese	Chinese	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
17	writing	writing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	compound	_	_
18	use	use	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **need** | present · do-support | many letters |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |
| 2 | **do** | present | many characters | Chinese writing use |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent use=Eventuality |

<!-- .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 · ✓ the right answer {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
26 letters; thousands of characters

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:88-justso-alphabet-2-shu-ya-sky-water:t8:o1:1
# text = 26 letters; thousands of characters
1	26	26	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	2	nummod	_	_
2	letters	letter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	4	punct	_	_
4	thousands	thousand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	conj	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	characters	character	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nmod	_	_
```

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

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
26 letters; thousands of characters, each one a whole word or syllable in its own box

<!-- fold The tree, 16 words -->
```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:88-justso-alphabet-2-shu-ya-sky-water:t8:o2:1
# text = 26 letters; thousands of characters, each one a whole word or syllable in its own box
1	26	26	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	2	nummod	_	_
2	letters	letter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	4	punct	_	_
4	thousands	thousand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	conj	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	characters	character	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
8	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	9	det	_	_
9	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	whole	whole	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	appos	_	_
13	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	syllable	syllable	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	conj	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
16	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
17	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	box	box	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **word** |  | each one |  |  | syllable's own box |  |  | tree rules |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
26 letters; some hundreds of signs

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:88-justso-alphabet-2-shu-ya-sky-water:t8:o3:1
# text = 26 letters; some hundreds of signs
1	26	26	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	2	nummod	_	_
2	letters	letter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	5	punct	_	_
4	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	5	det	_	_
5	hundreds	hundred	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	conj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	signs	sign	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nmod	_	_
```

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

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
26 letters, and so many thousands of different characters that nobody has ever counted them all

<!-- fold The tree, 16 words -->
```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:88-justso-alphabet-2-shu-ya-sky-water:t8:o4:1
# text = 26 letters, and so many thousands of different characters that nobody has ever counted them all
1	26	26	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	2	nummod	_	_
2	letters	letter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nsubj:pass	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
5	so	so	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	thousands	thousand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obl	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	different	different	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	characters	character	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nmod	_	_
11	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	15	nsubj:pass	_	_
12	nobody	nobody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	15	nsubj:pass	_	_
13	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
14	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	15	advmod	_	_
15	counted	count	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
16	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obj	_	_
17	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	16	nmod:unmarked	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **count** | present · perfect · passive |  | 26 letters |  |  | ever | many thousands of different characters *obl* | tree rules |

<!-- 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 -->

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- ← previous: [Just So Stories, How the Alphabet Was…, test 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/88-justso-alphabet-2-shu-ya-sky-water/t7/)
- next →: [Just So Stories, How the Alphabet Was…, test 9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/88-justso-alphabet-2-shu-ya-sky-water/t9/)
- ↑ back to [Just So Stories, How the Alphabet Was Made, part 2: yo, so, sho, shi, and shu-ya, the sky-water](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/88-justso-alphabet-2-shu-ya-sky-water/)