---
title: Your brother writes "the boys' football" about his own one ball. He… — The apostrophe war · tree and pragmatics
description: Your brother writes "the boys' football" about his own one ball. He has no brothers. What should it be? Test 4 · ★ 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 right.
---

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# Test 4 · ★ · The apostrophe war

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Your brother writes "the boys' football" about his own one ball. He has no brothers. What should it be?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 1 · right ✓ · **Who acts:** brother, football · **What happens:** write, have, be · **To what, where:** football, brothers

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 4 · ★ 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/#t4).

## The question {#question}

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 1:* Your brother writes "the boys' football" about his own one ball.

```conllu
# sent_id = question:language:15-the-apostrophe-war:t4:1
# text = Your brother writes "the boys' football" about his own one ball.
1	Your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	brother	brother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	writes	write	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	boys	boy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	'	's	PART	POS	_	6	case	_	_
8	football	football	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
10	about	about	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
11	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
12	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
13	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	compound	_	_
14	ball	ball	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **write** | present | Your brother | the boys's football |  |  |  | about brother's own one ball | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent football=Recipient about ball=Topic |

<!-- .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:* He has no brothers.

```conllu
# sent_id = question:language:15-the-apostrophe-war:t4:2
# text = He has no brothers.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	has	have	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	4	det	_	_
4	brothers	brother	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

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

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 3:* What should it be?

```conllu
# sent_id = question:language:15-the-apostrophe-war:t4:3
# text = What should it be?
1	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	4	obj	_	_
2	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	be	be	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | should | football |  |  |  |  |  | vn representation-110.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot what=Theme |

## The options {#options}

### Option 1 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
the boy's football

```conllu
# sent_id = question:language:15-the-apostrophe-war:t4:o1:1
# text = the boy's football
1	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	's	's	PART	POS	_	2	case	_	_
4	football	football	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
```

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

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
the boys football's

```conllu
# sent_id = question:language:15-the-apostrophe-war:t4:o2:1
# text = the boys football's
1	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	boys	boy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	compound	_	_
3	football	football	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	's	's	PART	POS	_	3	case	_	_
```

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

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
the boy's' football

```conllu
# sent_id = question:language:15-the-apostrophe-war:t4:o3:1
# text = the boy's' football
1	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	's	's	PART	POS	_	2	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	_
5	football	football	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
```

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

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
the boys' football

```conllu
# sent_id = question:language:15-the-apostrophe-war:t4:o4:1
# text = the boys' football
1	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	boys	boy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	'	's	PART	POS	_	2	case	_	_
4	football	football	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 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/language/15-the-apostrophe-war/t3/)
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