---
title: ★★★ Ruby counts letters and sounds in «sheep». How many letters, and… — Sounds and letters: how phonics starts · tree and pragmatics
description: ★★★ Ruby counts letters and sounds in «sheep». How many letters, and how many sounds? Test 10 of lesson 1 «Sounds and letters: how phonics starts» of the English 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 10 · Sounds and letters: how phonics starts

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
★★★ Ruby counts letters and sounds in «sheep». How many letters, and how many sounds?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 4 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** Ruby · **What happens:** count · **To what, where:** letters

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 10 of lesson 1 «Sounds and letters: how phonics starts» of the English 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/english/1-sounds-and-letters-how-phonics-starts/#t10).

## The question {#question}

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 1:* ★★★ Ruby counts letters and sounds in «sheep».

```conllu
# sent_id = question:english:1-sounds-and-letters-how-phonics-starts:t10:1
# text = ★★★ Ruby counts letters and sounds in «sheep».
1	★	★	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	★	★	X	FW	Foreign=Yes	1	dep	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	★	★	PUNCT	:	_	5	punct	_	_
4	Ruby	Ruby	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	counts	count	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	1	acl:relcl	_	_
6	letters	letter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obj	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	sounds	sound	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	conj	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	«	«	PUNCT	``	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	sheep	sheep	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	»	»	PUNCT	''	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **count** | present | Ruby | letters and sounds |  |  |  | in sheep | vn multiply-108 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent letter=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.

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 2:* How many letters, and how many sounds?

```conllu
# sent_id = question:english:1-sounds-and-letters-how-phonics-starts:t10:2
# text = How many letters, and how many sounds?
1	How	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	2	advmod	_	_
2	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	letters	letter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
6	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	7	advmod	_	_
7	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	sounds	sound	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

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

## The options {#options}

### Option 1 · ← Mova's choice {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
5 letters, 5 sounds (s, h, e, e, p)

<!-- fold The tree, 9 words -->
```conllu
# sent_id = question:english:1-sounds-and-letters-how-phonics-starts:t10:o1:1
# text = 5 letters, 5 sounds (s, h, e, e, p)
1	5	5	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	2	nummod	_	_
2	letters	letter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
4	5	5	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	5	nummod	_	_
5	sounds	sound	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	conj	_	_
6	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	s	's	PART	POS	Typo=Yes	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
9	h	h	INTJ	UH	_	5	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
11	e	e	INTJ	UH	_	15	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
13	e	e	INTJ	UH	_	15	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
15	p	p	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	15	punct	_	_
```

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

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
3 letters, 5 sounds

```conllu
# sent_id = question:english:1-sounds-and-letters-how-phonics-starts:t10:o2:1
# text = 3 letters, 5 sounds
1	3	3	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	2	nummod	_	_
2	letters	letter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
4	5	5	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	5	nummod	_	_
5	sounds	sound	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	conj	_	_
```

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

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
5 letters, 4 sounds (sh, e, e, p)

```conllu
# sent_id = question:english:1-sounds-and-letters-how-phonics-starts:t10:o3:1
# text = 5 letters, 4 sounds (sh, e, e, p)
1	5	5	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	2	nummod	_	_
2	letters	letter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
4	4	4	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	5	nummod	_	_
5	sounds	sound	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	appos	_	_
6	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	sh	sh	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
9	e	e	INTJ	UH	_	7	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
11	e	e	INTJ	UH	_	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
13	p	p	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	7	punct	_	_
```

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

### Option 4 · ✓ the right answer {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
5 letters, 3 sounds (sh, ee, p)

```conllu
# sent_id = question:english:1-sounds-and-letters-how-phonics-starts:t10:o4:1
# text = 5 letters, 3 sounds (sh, ee, p)
1	5	5	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	2	nummod	_	_
2	letters	letter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
4	3	3	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	5	nummod	_	_
5	sounds	sound	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	appos	_	_
6	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	sh	sh	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
9	ee	ee	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
11	p	p	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	7	punct	_	_
```

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

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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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