---
title: A mnemonic is a memory trick; it helps with a few very hard words, a… — How to learn spellings that stick · tree and pragmatics
description: A mnemonic is a memory trick; it helps with a few very hard words, and rules help with most others. Who acts: mnemonic, word, rules. A sentence of the lesson «How to learn spellings that stick» of the english course of Mova's primary school with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause
---

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# How to learn spellings that stick, sentence 20

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A mnemonic is a memory trick; it helps with a few very hard words, and rules help with most others.

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**Who acts:** mnemonic, word, rules · **What happens:** be, help · **To what, where:** memory trick

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This is a sentence of the lesson «How to learn spellings that stick» of the english course of Mova's primary school. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (mnemonic, word, rules), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = school:english:015-how-to-learn-spellings-that-stick.lesson:20
# text = A mnemonic is a memory trick; it helps with a few very hard words, and rules help with most others.
# source = school lesson (ours)
# course = english
# lesson = 015-how-to-learn-spellings-that-stick.lesson
# annotation = Mova annot: Rust (en) → Haiku 5.5 (medium, Batches API) patches; gates UD 2.18; agreed by treeagree rules (Stanza, Trankit, spaCy trf): no change
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	mnemonic	mnemonic	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	memory	memory	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	compound	_	_
6	trick	trick	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
7	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	9	punct	_	_
8	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	helps	help	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
10	with	with	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
12	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
13	very	very	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	hard	hard	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obl	_	_
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
18	rules	rule	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nsubj	_	_
19	help	help	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
20	with	with	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	most	most	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	22	amod	_	_
22	others	other	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl	_	_
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | a mnemonic | a memory trick |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **help** | present | word |  |  |  |  | with a few hard words | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent with word=Theme |
| 3 | **help** | present | rules |  |  |  |  | with most others | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent with other=Theme |

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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.

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**Licence: [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)**, as the whole of Mova corpus 0.4, of which this treebank (the agreed school, `mova-school-agreed-en.conllu`) is part. The lessons were written for Mova's primary school. Sentence `school:english:015-how-to-learn-spellings-that-stick.lesson:20`.

**The tree:** Mova annot: Rust (en) → Haiku 5.5 (medium, Batches API) patches; gates UD 2.18; agreed by treeagree rules (Stanza, Trankit, spaCy trf): no change. **The frames** are read from the tree by Mova's frames reader (`prag`) when this page is built, the lesson read in order, so a pronoun may be resolved from an earlier sentence.

See the [release 0.4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/releases/0.4/).

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