---
title: What would happen if we spelled every silent letter out of English? — i before e, silent letters and other f… · tree and pragmatics
description: What would happen if we spelled every silent letter out of English? Test 4 · ★ of lesson 10 «i before e, silent letters and other famous traps» 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 4 · ★ · i before e, silent letters and other famous traps

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
What would happen if we spelled every silent letter out of English?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 4 · **The right answer:** option 2 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** we · **What happens:** happen, spell · **To what, where:** silent letter, English

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 4 · ★ of lesson 10 «i before e, silent letters and other famous traps» 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/10-i-before-e-silent-letters-and-famous-traps/#t4).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:english:10-i-before-e-silent-letters-and-famous-traps:t4:1
# text = What would happen if we spelled every silent letter out of English?
1	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	happen	happen	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
5	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	spelled	spell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	advcl	_	_
7	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	9	det	_	_
8	silent	silent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	letter	letter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
10	out	out	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	English	English	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **happen** | would |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **spell** *a condition, not said to happen* | participle | we | every silent letter |  | English |  |  | vn pronounce-29.3.1 «NP V NP ADVP»: 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.

## The options {#options}

### Option 1 {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Nothing, silent letters do nothing

```conllu
# sent_id = question:english:10-i-before-e-silent-letters-and-famous-traps:t4:o1:1
# text = Nothing, silent letters do nothing
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	4	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	silent	silent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	letters	letter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
5	do	do	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	5	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | present | Nothing silent letters | nothing |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=Eventuality |

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Words would be easier to spell but would lose clues to their history

```conllu
# sent_id = question:english:10-i-before-e-silent-letters-and-famous-traps:t4:o2:1
# text = Words would be easier to spell but would lose clues to their history
1	Words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	cop	_	_
4	easier	easy	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	spell	spell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
7	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
8	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	lose	lose	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
10	clues	clue	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obj	_	_
11	to	to	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	history	history	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | would | Words |  |  |  |  | easy *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **spell** | to-infinitive | Words *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn pronounce-29.3.1 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **lose** | would | Words *not said here* | clues |  |  |  | to Words's history | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent clue=Eventuality |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Every word would be read the same in every accent

```conllu
# sent_id = question:english:10-i-before-e-silent-letters-and-famous-traps:t4:o3:1
# text = Every word would be read the same in every accent
1	Every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	2	det	_	_
2	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	aux:pass	_	_
5	read	read	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	same	same	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	obj	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	10	det	_	_
10	accent	accent	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **read** | would · passive |  | every word |  | every accent |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: subject=Recipient same=Topic |

### Option 4 · ← Mova's choice {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Words like «knight» and «night» would still look different, because their meanings differ

<!-- fold The tree, 13 words -->
```conllu
# sent_id = question:english:10-i-before-e-silent-letters-and-famous-traps:t4:o4:1
# text = Words like «knight» and «night» would still look different, because their meanings differ
1	Words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj	_	_
2	like	like	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	«	«	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	knight	knight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	»	»	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
7	«	«	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	»	»	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
10	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
11	still	still	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
13	different	different	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
16	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	meanings	meaning	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nsubj	_	_
18	differ	differ	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	parataxis	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **look** | would | Words like knight and night |  |  |  | still | different *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus |
| 2 | **differ** | present | Words's meanings |  |  |  |  |  | vn correspond-36.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **mean** |  | Words *= word* |  |  |  |  |  | nom meaning «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- 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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- ↑ back to [i before e, silent letters and other famous traps](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/english/10-i-before-e-silent-letters-and-famous-traps/)