---
title: What would happen if English had never met Arabic? — Borrowed words from far away: Hindi, A… · tree and pragmatics
description: What would happen if English had never met Arabic? Test 5 of lesson 24 «Borrowed words from far away: Hindi, Arabic, Chinese, Ukrainian and more» 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 5 · Borrowed words from far away: Hindi, Arabic, Chinese, Ukra…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
What would happen if English had never met Arabic?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 4 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** English · **What happens:** happen, not meet · **To what, where:** Arabic

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 5 of lesson 24 «Borrowed words from far away: Hindi, Arabic, Chinese, Ukrainian and more» 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/24-borrowed-words-from-far-away/#t5).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:language:24-borrowed-words-from-far-away:t5:1
# text = What would happen if English had never met Arabic?
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	_	8	mark	_	_
5	English	English	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
6	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
7	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	8	advmod	_	_
8	met	meet	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	_
9	Arabic	Arabic	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	?	?	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 | **not** **meet** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · perfect | English | Arabic |  |  |  |  | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent arabic=Co-Agent |

<!-- .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 · ← Mova's choice {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It would have no numbers at all, not even one, two and three

<!-- fold The tree, 13 words -->
```conllu
# sent_id = question:language:24-borrowed-words-from-far-away:t5:o1:1
# text = It would have no numbers at all, not even one, two and three
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	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	numbers	number	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
6	at	at	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	11	advmod	_	_
10	even	even	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
11	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	3	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
13	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	11	conj	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	11	conj	_	_
```

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

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It would have no food words

```conllu
# sent_id = question:language:24-borrowed-words-from-far-away:t5:o2:1
# text = It would have no food words
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	6	det	_	_
5	food	food	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	compound	_	_
6	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
```

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

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Nothing would change in English

```conllu
# sent_id = question:language:24-borrowed-words-from-far-away:t5:o3:1
# text = Nothing would change in English
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	change	change	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	English	English	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **change** | would | Nothing |  |  | English |  |  | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It might lack words like "coffee", "sugar" and "algebra"

<!-- fold The tree, 9 words -->
```conllu
# sent_id = question:language:24-borrowed-words-from-far-away:t5:o4:1
# text = It might lack words like "coffee", "sugar" and "algebra"
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	lack	lack	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
5	like	like	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	coffee	coffee	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	sugar	sugar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	11	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
14	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	algebra	algebra	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	15	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lack** | might | It | words |  |  |  | like coffee and algebra | tree rules |

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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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