---
title: Oscar says, "That's backwards, like." What does French do with colou… — Colours · tree and pragmatics
description: Oscar says, "That's backwards, like." What does French do with colours? Test 2 of lesson 9 «Colours» of the French 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 2 · Colours

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Oscar says, "That's backwards, like." What does French do with colours?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 2 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** Oscar, That, French · **What happens:** say, be, do · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 2 of lesson 9 «Colours» of the French 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/french/9-colours/#t2).

## The question {#question}

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 1:* Oscar says, "That's backwards, like."

```conllu
# sent_id = question:french:9-colours:t2:1
# text = Oscar says, "That's backwards, like."
1	Oscar	Oscar	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
2	says	say	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
4	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	That	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	7	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	's	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
7	backwards	backwards	ADV	RB	_	2	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
9	like	like	ADP	IN	_	2	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | Oscar |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** *in a quote* | present | That |  |  |  |  | backwards *property* | 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 does French do with colours?

```conllu
# sent_id = question:french:9-colours:t2:2
# text = What does French do with colours?
1	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	4	obj	_	_
2	does	do	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	French	French	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	with	with	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	colours	colour	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | present · do-support | French |  |  |  |  | with colours | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |

## The options {#options}

### Option 1 · ← Mova's choice {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It leaves the colour out

```conllu
# sent_id = question:french:9-colours:t2:o1:1
# text = It leaves the colour out
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	leaves	leave	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	colour	colour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	out	out	ADP	RP	_	2	compound:prt	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **leave out** | present | It | the colour |  |  |  |  | vn neglect-75.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent colour=Theme |

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It puts the colour after the noun

```conllu
# sent_id = question:french:9-colours:t2:o2:1
# text = It puts the colour after the noun
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	puts	put	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	colour	colour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	after	after	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	noun	noun	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **put** | present | It | the colour |  |  | after the noun |  | vn invest-13.5.4-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent colour=Goal |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It puts the colour at the end of the sentence

```conllu
# sent_id = question:french:9-colours:t2:o3:1
# text = It puts the colour at the end of the sentence
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	puts	put	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	colour	colour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	at	at	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	end	end	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	sentence	sentence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **put** | present | It | the colour |  |  | at the end of the sentence |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent colour=Theme at end=Destination |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It puts the colour before the noun

```conllu
# sent_id = question:french:9-colours:t2:o4:1
# text = It puts the colour before the noun
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	puts	put	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	colour	colour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	before	before	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	noun	noun	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **put** | present | It | the colour |  | the noun |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent colour=Theme before noun=Destination |

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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: [Colours, test 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/french/9-colours/t1/)
- next →: [Colours, test 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/french/9-colours/t3/)
- ↑ back to [Colours](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/french/9-colours/)