---
title: Ben first says the verb in "The dog barked" is "dog". What question… — Verbs: doing words and being words · tree and pragmatics
description: Ben first says the verb in "The dog barked" is "dog". What question would help him? Test 2 of lesson 3 «Verbs: doing words and being words» 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 2 · Verbs: doing words and being words

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Ben first says the verb in "The dog barked" is "dog". What question would help him?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 2 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** Ben, dog, question · **What happens:** say, bark, be, help · **To what, where:** verb, dog · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 2 of lesson 3 «Verbs: doing words and being words» 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/3-verbs-doing-words-and-being-words/#t2).

## The question {#question}

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 1:* Ben first says the verb in "The dog barked" is "dog".

```conllu
# sent_id = question:language:3-verbs-doing-words-and-being-words:t2:1
# text = Ben first says the verb in "The dog barked" is "dog".
1	Ben	Ben	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
2	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	3	advmod	_	_
3	says	say	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	verb	verb	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
7	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
10	barked	bark	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	_
12	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
13	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | Ben | the verb |  |  |  | first *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent verb=Topic |
| 2 | **bark** *in a quote* | participle |  | the dog *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is** *in a quote* | present | the dog |  |  |  |  | in dog | 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:* What question would help him?

```conllu
# sent_id = question:language:3-verbs-doing-words-and-being-words:t2:2
# text = What question would help him?
1	What	what	DET	WDT	PronType=Int	2	det	_	_
2	question	question	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **help** | would | what question |  | dog |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Beneficiary |

## The options {#options}

### Option 1 · ← Mova's choice {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Which word has a capital?

```conllu
# sent_id = question:language:3-verbs-doing-words-and-being-words:t2:o1:1
# text = Which word has a capital?
1	Which	which	DET	WDT	PronType=Int	2	det	_	_
2	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	has	have	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	capital	capital	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | present | which word | a capital |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent capital=Patient |

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Which word says what happened?

```conllu
# sent_id = question:language:3-verbs-doing-words-and-being-words:t2:o2:1
# text = Which word says what happened?
1	Which	which	DET	WDT	PronType=Int	2	det	_	_
2	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	says	say	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	5	nsubj	_	_
5	happened	happen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | which word |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **happen** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Which word is first?

```conllu
# sent_id = question:language:3-verbs-doing-words-and-being-words:t2:o3:1
# text = Which word is first?
1	Which	which	DET	WDT	PronType=Int	2	det	_	_
2	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

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

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Which word is the longest?

```conllu
# sent_id = question:language:3-verbs-doing-words-and-being-words:t2:o4:1
# text = Which word is the longest?
1	Which	which	DET	WDT	PronType=Int	2	det	_	_
2	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	longest	long	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

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

<!-- 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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- ← previous: [Verbs: doing words and being words, test 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/language/3-verbs-doing-words-and-being-words/t1/)
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- ↑ back to [Verbs: doing words and being words](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/language/3-verbs-doing-words-and-being-words/)