---
title: Your mate says doubt is spelt "doute" in very old books. Could that… — Silent letters and the mystery of -ough · tree and pragmatics
description: Your mate says doubt is spelt "doute" in very old books. Could that be true? Test 10 of lesson 13 «Silent letters and the mystery of -ough» 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 10 · Silent letters and the mystery of -ough

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Your mate says doubt is spelt "doute" in very old books. Could that be true?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 4 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** mate, that · **What happens:** say, be · **To what, where:** old books, doubt spelt · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 10 of lesson 13 «Silent letters and the mystery of -ough» 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/13-silent-letters-and-the-mystery-of-ough/#t10).

## The question {#question}

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 1:* Your mate says doubt is spelt "doute" in very old books.

```conllu
# sent_id = question:language:13-silent-letters-and-the-mystery-of-ough:t10:1
# text = Your mate says doubt is spelt "doute" in very old books.
1	Your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	mate	mate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	says	say	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	doubt	doubt	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	compound	_	_
5	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
6	spelt	spelt	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
7	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	doute	doute	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	very	very	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	books	book	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | Your mate |  |  | old books |  |  | vn pronounce-29.3.1 «NP V NP PP.manner»: agent=Agent in book=Manner |
| 2 | **is a** | present |  | doubt spelt |  |  |  |  | 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:* Could that be true?

```conllu
# sent_id = question:language:13-silent-letters-and-the-mystery-of-ough:t10:2
# text = Could that be true?
1	Could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
2	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	4	nsubj	_	_
3	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	cop	_	_
4	true	true	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

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

## The options {#options}

### Option 1 · ← Mova's choice {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
No, the b was always there and always spoken out loud

```conllu
# sent_id = question:language:13-silent-letters-and-the-mystery-of-ough:t10:o1:1
# text = No, the b was always there and always spoken out loud
1	No	no	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Neg	7	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	b	B	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
6	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	7	advmod	_	_
7	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	0	root	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
9	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	10	advmod	_	_
10	spoken	speak	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	conj	_	_
11	out	out	ADP	RP	_	10	compound:prt	_	_
12	loud	loud	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the b |  |  |  |  | always, there *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **speak out** *speech: other* | participle | the b *not said here* |  |  |  |  | always, loud *property* | vn lecture-37.11-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
No, doubt is a new word

```conllu
# sent_id = question:language:13-silent-letters-and-the-mystery-of-ough:t10:o2:1
# text = No, doubt is a new word
1	No	no	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Neg	7	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	doubt	doubt	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
4	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	new	new	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
```

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

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Yes, but only in America

```conllu
# sent_id = question:language:13-silent-letters-and-the-mystery-of-ough:t10:o3:1
# text = Yes, but only in America
1	Yes	yes	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Pos	6	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
4	only	only	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	America	America	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
```

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

### Option 4 · ✓ the right answer {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Yes, the b was added later by scholars

```conllu
# sent_id = question:language:13-silent-letters-and-the-mystery-of-ough:t10:o4:1
# text = Yes, the b was added later by scholars
1	Yes	yes	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Pos	6	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	b	B	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj:pass	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux:pass	_	_
6	added	add	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
7	later	late	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	6	advmod	_	_
8	by	by	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	scholars	scholar	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl:agent	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **add** *speech: assert* | past · passive | scholars | the b |  |  |  | late *property* | vn mix-22.1-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Patient |

<!-- 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 -->

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- next →: [Silent letters and the mystery of -ough, test 11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/language/13-silent-letters-and-the-mystery-of-ough/t11/)
- ↑ back to [Silent letters and the mystery of -ough](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/language/13-silent-letters-and-the-mystery-of-ough/)