---
title: What would happen if English had no adverbs? — Adjectives and adverbs: describing thi… · tree and pragmatics
description: What would happen if English had no adverbs? Test 7 of lesson 4 «Adjectives and adverbs: describing things and actions» 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 7 · Adjectives and adverbs: describing things and actions

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
What would happen if English had no adverbs?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 3 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** English · **What happens:** happen, have · **To what, where:** adverbs

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 7 of lesson 4 «Adjectives and adverbs: describing things and actions» 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/4-adjectives-and-adverbs/#t7).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:language:4-adjectives-and-adverbs:t7:1
# text = What would happen if English had no adverbs?
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	_	6	mark	_	_
5	English	English	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
7	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	8	det	_	_
8	adverbs	adverb	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	?	?	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 | **have** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | English | no adverbs |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent adverb=Patient |

<!-- .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 -->
Nothing, nouns would simply do the same job as adverbs

```conllu
# sent_id = question:language:4-adjectives-and-adverbs:t7:o1:1
# text = Nothing, nouns would simply do the same job as adverbs
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	3	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	nouns	noun	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
4	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
5	simply	simply	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	same	same	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	job	job	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
10	as	as	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	adverbs	adverb	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | would | Nothing nouns | the same job |  |  |  | as adverbs; simply *property* | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent job=Eventuality |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
All verbs would disappear too

```conllu
# sent_id = question:language:4-adjectives-and-adverbs:t7:o2:1
# text = All verbs would disappear too
1	All	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	2	det	_	_
2	verbs	verb	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
3	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	disappear	disappear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	too	too	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **disappear** | would | all verbs |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

### Option 3 · ✓ the right answer {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
You couldn't easily say how, when or where things happened

```conllu
# sent_id = question:language:4-adjectives-and-adverbs:t7:o3:1
# text = You couldn't easily say how, when or where things happened
1	You	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
4	easily	easily	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
8	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	5	ccomp	_	_
9	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
10	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	12	advmod	_	_
11	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj	_	_
12	happened	happen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **say** *speech: assert* | could | You |  |  |  |  | easily *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **happen** | past | things |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Sentences would have to be questions

```conllu
# sent_id = question:language:4-adjectives-and-adverbs:t7:o4:1
# text = Sentences would have to be questions
1	Sentences	sentence	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
5	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	cop	_	_
6	questions	question	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | would | Sentences |  |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** | to-infinitive |  | questions |  |  |  |  | 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.

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- ← previous: [Adjectives and adverbs: describing thi…, test 6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/language/4-adjectives-and-adverbs/t6/)
- next →: [Adjectives and adverbs: describing thi…, test 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/language/4-adjectives-and-adverbs/t8/)
- ↑ back to [Adjectives and adverbs: describing things and actions](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/language/4-adjectives-and-adverbs/)