---
title: my mate thinks míngtiān means "morning" cos "míng" sounds like morni… — Today, tomorrow, now, later · tree and pragmatics
description: my mate thinks míngtiān means "morning" cos "míng" sounds like morning. right? Test 1 of lesson 21 «Today, tomorrow, now, later» of the Chinese street course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and of each option; Mova's choice was wrong.
---

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# Test 1 · Today, tomorrow, now, later

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
my mate thinks míngtiān means "morning" cos "míng" sounds like morning. right?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 3 · **The right answer:** option 2 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** mate, míngtiān, míng · **What happens:** think, mean, sound · **To what, where:** morning cos · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 1 of lesson 21 «Today, tomorrow, now, later» of the Chinese street 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/chinese-street/21-today-tomorrow-now-later/#t1).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:chinese-street:21-today-tomorrow-now-later:t1:1
# text = my mate thinks míngtiān means "morning" cos "míng" sounds like morning. right?
1	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	mate	mate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	thinks	think	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	míngtiān	míngtiān	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	means	mean	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	ccomp	_	_
6	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	morning	morning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
9	cos	cos	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
10	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	míng	míng	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	11	punct	_	_
13	sounds	sound	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	acl:relcl	_	_
14	like	like	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	morning	morning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
17	right	right	INTJ	UH	_	3	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* | present | my mate |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **mean** | present | míngtiān | morning cos |  |  |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cos=Topic |
| 3 | **sound** | present | míng | morning cos *not said here* |  |  | morning |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location cos=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 {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Yes, it means "this morning"

```conllu
# sent_id = question:chinese-street:21-today-tomorrow-now-later:t1:o1:1
# text = Yes, it means "this morning"
1	Yes	yes	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Pos	4	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	means	mean	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	7	det	_	_
7	morning	morning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **mean** | present | it |  |  |  | morning |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent |

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
No, míngtiān is tomorrow; morning is zǎoshang

```conllu
# sent_id = question:chinese-street:21-today-tomorrow-now-later:t1:o2:1
# text = No, míngtiān is tomorrow; morning is zǎoshang
1	No	no	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Neg	3	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	míngtiān	míngtiān	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
4	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
5	tomorrow	tomorrow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	9	punct	_	_
7	morning	morning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	compound	_	_
8	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
9	zǎoshang	zǎoshang	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	conj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present |  | tomorrow |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **is a** | present |  | morning zǎoshang |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

### Option 3 · ← Mova's choice {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
No, míngtiān means yesterday, the day before

```conllu
# sent_id = question:chinese-street:21-today-tomorrow-now-later:t1:o3:1
# text = No, míngtiān means yesterday, the day before
1	No	no	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Neg	4	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
3	míngtiān	míngtiān	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	means	mean	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	yesterday	yesterday	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
9	before	before	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **mean** | present | míngtiān |  |  |  | day; yesterday |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Yes, míngtiān is morning, he's spot on

```conllu
# sent_id = question:chinese-street:21-today-tomorrow-now-later:t1:o4:1
# text = Yes, míngtiān is morning, he's spot on
1	Yes	yes	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Pos	5	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	míngtiān	míngtiān	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	compound	_	_
4	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
5	morning	morning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	's	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux:pass	_	_
9	spot	spot	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	acl	_	_
10	on	on	ADP	IN	_	9	compound:prt	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present |  | míngtiān morning |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **spot on** | present · passive |  | he |  |  |  |  | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Destination |

<!-- 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.

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- ← previous: [Weather and what Granny says to wear, exam 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/chinese-street/20-weather-and-what-granny-says-to-wear/e4/)
- next →: [Today, tomorrow, now, later, test 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/chinese-street/21-today-tomorrow-now-later/t2/)
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