---
title: «is it one deer, two deers?» What is the plural? — Spelling plurals: -s, -es, -ies, -ves… · tree and pragmatics
description: «is it one deer, two deers?» What is the plural? Test 9 · ★ of lesson 6 «Spelling plurals: -s, -es, -ies, -ves and odd ones» 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 · ★ · Spelling plurals: -s, -es, -ies, -ves and odd ones

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
«is it one deer, two deers?» What is the plural?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 3 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** it, plural · **What happens:** be · **To what, where:** one deer

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 9 · ★ of lesson 6 «Spelling plurals: -s, -es, -ies, -ves and odd ones» 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/6-spelling-plurals/#t9).

## The question {#question}

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 1:* «is it one deer, two deers?»

```conllu
# sent_id = question:english:6-spelling-plurals:t9:1
# text = «is it one deer, two deers?»
1	«	«	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	5	nummod	_	_
5	deer	deer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	8	nummod	_	_
8	deers	deer	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	»	»	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | it | one deer and two deers |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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:* What is the plural?

```conllu
# sent_id = question:english:6-spelling-plurals:t9:2
# text = What is the plural?
1	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	0	root	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	1	cop	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	plural	plural	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

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

## The options {#options}

### Option 1 · ← Mova's choice {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
deers

```conllu
# sent_id = question:english:6-spelling-plurals:t9:o1:1
# text = deers
1	deers	deer	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	_
```

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

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
dear

```conllu
# sent_id = question:english:6-spelling-plurals:t9:o2:1
# text = dear
1	dear	dear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
```

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

### Option 3 · ✓ the right answer {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
deer

```conllu
# sent_id = question:english:6-spelling-plurals:t9:o3:1
# text = deer
1	deer	deer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
```

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

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
deeres

```conllu
# sent_id = question:english:6-spelling-plurals:t9:o4:1
# text = deeres
1	deeres	deere	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .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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- ← previous: [Spelling plurals: -s, -es, -ies, -ves…, test 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/english/6-spelling-plurals/t8/)
- next →: [Spelling plurals: -s, -es, -ies, -ves…, test 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/english/6-spelling-plurals/t10/)
- ↑ back to [Spelling plurals: -s, -es, -ies, -ves and odd ones](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/english/6-spelling-plurals/)