---
title: "Called it an honest mistake, but he kept the change three times." W… — Soft words for hard things: failure an… · tree and pragmatics
description: "Called it an honest mistake, but he kept the change three times." Why might the speaker doubt it? Test 7 of lesson 35 «Soft words for hard things: failure and mistakes and stupidity and madness» of the euphemisms course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the questi
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/euphemisms/35-mistakes-and-stupidity/t7/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [questions](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/) / [Euphemisms](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/euphemisms/) / [Soft words for hard things: failure an…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/euphemisms/35-mistakes-and-stupidity/) / t7

# Test 7 · Soft words for hard things: failure and mistakes and stupi…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"Called it an honest mistake, but he kept the change three times." Why might the speaker doubt it?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 3 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** he, speaker · **What happens:** call, keep, doubt · **To what, where:** it, change · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 7 of lesson 35 «Soft words for hard things: failure and mistakes and stupidity and madness» of the euphemisms 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/euphemisms/35-mistakes-and-stupidity/#t7).

## The question {#question}

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 1:* "Called it an honest mistake, but he kept the change three times."

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:35-mistakes-and-stupidity:t7:1
# text = "Called it an honest mistake, but he kept the change three times."
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Called	call	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obj	_	_
4	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	honest	honest	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	mistake	mistake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	kept	keep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	change	change	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	14	nummod	_	_
14	times	time	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **call** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | participle |  | it |  |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent it=Recipient |
| 2 | **keep** *in a quote* | past | he | the change |  |  | time |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent change=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:* Why might the speaker doubt it?

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:35-mistakes-and-stupidity:t7:2
# text = Why might the speaker doubt it?
1	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	5	advmod	_	_
2	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	speaker	speaker	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	doubt	doubt	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **doubt** | might | the speaker | change |  |  |  |  | vn judgment-33.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |

## The options {#options}

### Option 1 · ← Mova's choice {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Honest mistakes happen three times

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:35-mistakes-and-stupidity:t7:o1:1
# text = Honest mistakes happen three times
1	Honest	honest	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	amod	_	_
2	mistakes	mistake	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	happen	happen	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	5	nummod	_	_
5	times	time	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl:unmarked	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **happen** | present | Honest mistakes |  |  |  | time |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He gave the money back

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:35-mistakes-and-stupidity:t7:o2:1
# text = He gave the money back
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	money	money	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	back	back	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **give back** | past | He | the money |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent money=Theme |

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Doing it three times looks like it was on purpose

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:35-mistakes-and-stupidity:t7:o3:1
# text = Doing it three times looks like it was on purpose
1	Doing	do	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	5	csubj	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	1	obj	_	_
3	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	4	nummod	_	_
4	times	time	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	1	obl:unmarked	_	_
5	looks	look	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	like	like	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
7	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
8	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
9	on	on	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	purpose	purpose	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | gerund |  | it |  |  | time |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Eventuality |
| 2 | **look** | present | Doing |  |  |  |  |  | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 3 | **is** | past | it |  |  |  |  | like purpose | tree rules |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Change is always kept

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:35-mistakes-and-stupidity:t7:o4:1
# text = Change is always kept
1	Change	change	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
3	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	4	advmod	_	_
4	kept	keep	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **keep** | present · passive |  | Change |  |  |  | always *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |

<!-- 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 -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [Soft words for hard things: failure an…, test 6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/euphemisms/35-mistakes-and-stupidity/t6/)
- next →: [Soft words for hard things: failure an…, test 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/euphemisms/35-mistakes-and-stupidity/t8/)
- ↑ back to [Soft words for hard things: failure and mistakes and stupidity and madness](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/euphemisms/35-mistakes-and-stupidity/)