---
title: Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the… — Tenses: past, present and future · tree and pragmatics
description: Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the grammatical category of tense? Exam question 1 of lesson 8 «Tenses: past, present and future» 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
---

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# Exam question 1 · Tenses: past, present and future

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the grammatical category of tense?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 3 · **The right answer:** option 4 · wrong ✗ · **What happens:** follow, characteris · **To what, where:** grammatical category

<!-- .vabout -->
This is exam question 1 of lesson 8 «Tenses: past, present and future» of the language course of Mova's primary school, asked in stiff, formal language. 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/8-tenses-past-present-future/#e1).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:language:8-tenses-past-present-future:e1:1
# text = Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the grammatical category of tense?
1	Which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	8	nsubj	_	_
2	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	following	follow	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	5	amod	_	_
5	statements	statement	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obl	_	_
6	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	7	advmod	_	_
7	accurately	accurately	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	characterises	characteris	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	grammatical	grammatical	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	category	category	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	tense	tense	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **follow** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **characteris** | present |  | the grammatical category of tense |  |  |  | of the following statements; accurately *property* | 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.

## The options {#options}

### Option 1 {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The punctuation concluding a sentence

```conllu
# sent_id = question:language:8-tenses-past-present-future:e1:o1:1
# text = The punctuation concluding a sentence
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	punctuation	punctuation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
3	concluding	conclude	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	2	acl	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	sentence	sentence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **conclude** | gerund | the punctuation *not said here* | a sentence |  |  |  |  | vn deduce-97.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sentence=Theme |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The order in which adjectives are arranged

```conllu
# sent_id = question:language:8-tenses-past-present-future:e1:o2:1
# text = The order in which adjectives are arranged
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	order	order	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	in	in	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	which	which	DET	WDT	PronType=Int	5	det	_	_
5	adjectives	adjective	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nmod	_	_
6	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux:pass	_	_
7	arranged	arrange	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **arrange** | present · passive |  | the order in which adjectives |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Product |

### Option 3 · ← Mova's choice {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The form of a noun indicating number

```conllu
# sent_id = question:language:8-tenses-past-present-future:e1:o3:1
# text = The form of a noun indicating number
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	form	form	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	noun	noun	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	_
6	indicating	indicate	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	5	acl	_	_
7	number	number	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **indicate** | gerund | a noun *not said here* | number |  |  |  |  | vn indicate-78-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot number=Topic |
| 2 | **form** |  |  | a noun |  |  |  |  | nom form «communication transitive»: of=patient |

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The form of a verb indicating the time of an action or state

```conllu
# sent_id = question:language:8-tenses-past-present-future:e1:o4:1
# text = The form of a verb indicating the time of an action or state
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	form	form	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	verb	verb	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	_
6	indicating	indicate	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	5	acl	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	action	action	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	_
12	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	state	state	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	conj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **indicate** | gerund | a verb *not said here* |  |  |  | time |  | vn indicate-78-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Pivot |
| 2 | **form** |  |  | a verb |  |  |  |  | nom form «communication transitive»: of=patient |

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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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- ← previous: [Tenses: past, present and future, test 11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/language/8-tenses-past-present-future/t11/)
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