---
title: Puzzle: "The teachers' room" and "The teacher's room". In which does… — The apostrophe war · tree and pragmatics
description: Puzzle: "The teachers' room" and "The teacher's room". In which does one teacher own the room? Test 11 · ★ of lesson 15 «The apostrophe war» 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 11 · ★ · The apostrophe war

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Puzzle: "The teachers' room" and "The teacher's room". In which does one teacher own the room?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 2 · wrong ✗ · **What happens:** do · **To what, where:** one teacher

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This is test 11 · ★ of lesson 15 «The apostrophe war» 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/15-the-apostrophe-war/#t11).

## The question {#question}

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 1:* Puzzle: "The teachers' room" and "The teacher's room".

```conllu
# sent_id = question:language:15-the-apostrophe-war:t11:1
# text = Puzzle: "The teachers' room" and "The teacher's room".
1	Puzzle	puzzle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	1	punct	_	_
3	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	teachers	teacher	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	'	's	PART	POS	_	5	case	_	_
7	room	room	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
10	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	teacher	teacher	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	's	's	PART	POS	_	12	case	_	_
14	room	room	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

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

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 2:* In which does one teacher own the room?

```conllu
# sent_id = question:language:15-the-apostrophe-war:t11:2
# text = In which does one teacher own the room?
1	In	in	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	3	nsubj	_	_
3	does	do	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	5	nummod	_	_
5	teacher	teacher	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	own	own	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	room	room	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

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

## The options {#options}

### Option 1 · ← Mova's choice {#o1}

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

```conllu
# sent_id = question:language:15-the-apostrophe-war:t11:o1:1
# text = Both
1	Both	both	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	0	root	_	_
```

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

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The teacher's room

```conllu
# sent_id = question:language:15-the-apostrophe-war:t11:o2:1
# text = The teacher's room
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	teacher	teacher	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	's	's	PART	POS	_	2	case	_	_
4	room	room	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
```

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

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Neither

```conllu
# sent_id = question:language:15-the-apostrophe-war:t11:o3:1
# text = Neither
1	Neither	neither	ADV	RB	_	0	root	_	_
```

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

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The teachers' room

```conllu
# sent_id = question:language:15-the-apostrophe-war:t11:o4:1
# text = The teachers' room
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	teachers	teacher	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	'	's	PART	POS	_	2	case	_	_
4	room	room	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	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: [The apostrophe war, test 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/language/15-the-apostrophe-war/t10/)
- next →: [The apostrophe war, exam 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/language/15-the-apostrophe-war/e1/)
- ↑ back to [The apostrophe war](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/language/15-the-apostrophe-war/)