---
title: What would happen if a sentence had no verb at all, like «The big re… — Word classes: the jobs words do · tree and pragmatics
description: What would happen if a sentence had no verb at all, like «The big red bus»? Test 9 · ★ of lesson 27 «Word classes: the jobs words do» 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 9 · ★ · Word classes: the jobs words do

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
What would happen if a sentence had no verb at all, like «The big red bus»?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 4 · **The right answer:** option 2 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** sentence · **What happens:** happen, have · **To what, where:** verb, all

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This is test 9 · ★ of lesson 27 «Word classes: the jobs words do» 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/27-word-classes-the-jobs-words-do/#t9).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:english:27-word-classes-the-jobs-words-do:t9:1
# text = What would happen if a sentence had no verb at all, like «The big red bus»?
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	_	7	mark	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	sentence	sentence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
7	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
8	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	9	det	_	_
9	verb	verb	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
10	at	at	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
13	like	like	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
14	«	«	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
16	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
17	red	red	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	bus	bus	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	»	»	PUNCT	''	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **happen** | would |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **have** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | a sentence | no verb |  | all |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent verb=Patient |

<!-- .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 -->
It would be a command

```conllu
# sent_id = question:english:27-word-classes-the-jobs-words-do:t9:o1:1
# text = It would be a command
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
3	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	cop	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	command	command	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | would | It | a command |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It wouldn't be a full sentence

```conllu
# sent_id = question:english:27-word-classes-the-jobs-words-do:t9:o2:1
# text = It wouldn't be a full sentence
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	7	advmod	_	_
4	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	cop	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	full	full	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	sentence	sentence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is a** | would | It | a full sentence |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It would be a question

```conllu
# sent_id = question:english:27-word-classes-the-jobs-words-do:t9:o3:1
# text = It would be a question
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
3	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	cop	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	question	question	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | would | It | a question |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

### Option 4 · ← Mova's choice {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It would be more exciting

```conllu
# sent_id = question:english:27-word-classes-the-jobs-words-do:t9:o4:1
# text = It would be more exciting
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
3	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	cop	_	_
4	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	5	advmod	_	_
5	exciting	exciting	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | would | It |  |  |  |  | exciting *property* | tree rules |

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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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