---
title: What would happen if every English plural just added -s? — Plurals that make no sense: mice, shee… · tree and pragmatics
description: What would happen if every English plural just added -s? Test 4 · ★★★ of lesson 10 «Plurals that make no sense: mice, sheep and geese» of the language 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 · ★★★ · Plurals that make no sense: mice, sheep and geese

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
What would happen if every English plural just added -s?

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

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 4 · ★★★ of lesson 10 «Plurals that make no sense: mice, sheep and geese» of the language 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/language/10-plurals-mice-sheep-and-geese/#t4).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:language:10-plurals-mice-sheep-and-geese:t4:1
# text = What would happen if every English plural just added -s?
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	_	9	mark	_	_
5	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	7	det	_	_
6	English	English	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	plural	plural	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
8	just	just	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	added	add	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
10	-s	-	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	?	?	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 | **add** *speech: assert* *a condition, not said to happen* | past | every English plural | -s |  |  |  |  | vn mix-22.1-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent -=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 -->
Nothing, they already do

```conllu
# sent_id = question:language:10-plurals-mice-sheep-and-geese:t4:o1:1
# text = Nothing, they already do
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	already	already	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	do	do	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	1	acl:relcl	_	_
```

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

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
We'd say mouses, foots and childs, and the old forms would disappear

<!-- fold The tree, 13 words -->
```conllu
# sent_id = question:language:10-plurals-mice-sheep-and-geese:t4:o2:1
# text = We'd say mouses, foots and childs, and the old forms would disappear
1	We	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	'd	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	mouses	mouse	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
6	foots	foot	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	childs	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	forms	form	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nsubj	_	_
14	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	disappear	disappear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | would | We |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **mouse** | present |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **foot** | present |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **disappear** | would | the old forms |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
We'd have no plurals at all

```conllu
# sent_id = question:language:10-plurals-mice-sheep-and-geese:t4:o3:1
# text = We'd have no plurals at all
1	We	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	'd	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	5	det	_	_
5	plurals	plural	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
6	at	at	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	3	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | would | We | no plurals |  | all |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent plural=Patient |

### Option 4 · ← Mova's choice {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Every word would end in -en

```conllu
# sent_id = question:language:10-plurals-mice-sheep-and-geese:t4:o4:1
# text = Every word would end in -en
1	Every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	2	det	_	_
2	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	end	end	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	en	en	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **end** | would | every word |  |  | en |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |

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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.

<!-- /div -->

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