--- title: The trickiest pair is its and it's: say "it is" in your head, and if… — Apostrophes: missing letters and belonging · tree and pragmatics description: The trickiest pair is its and it's: say "it is" in your head, and if that fits, write "it's"; a Londoner's "It's bare cold" means "It is very cold", while "The dog wagged its tail" has no apostrophe at all. Who acts: that, apostrophe, bare cold, dog. A sentence of the lesson «Apostrophes: missing le --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/34-apostrophes-missing-letters-and-belonging/4/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [English](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/) / [Apostrophes: missing letters and belon…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/34-apostrophes-missing-letters-and-belonging/) / 4 # Apostrophes: missing letters and belonging, sentence 4 The trickiest pair is its and it's: say "it is" in your head, and if that fits, write "it's"; a Londoner's "It's bare cold" means "It is very cold", while "The dog wagged its tail" has no apostrophe at all. **Who acts:** that, apostrophe, bare cold, dog · **What happens:** be, fit, write, mean, wag, have · **To what, where:** apostrophe, head, tail, all · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is a sentence of the lesson «Apostrophes: missing letters and belonging» 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 (that, apostrophe, bare cold, dog), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. ## The tree {#tree} ```conllu # sent_id = school:english:034-apostrophes-missing-letters-and-belonging.lesson:4 # text = The trickiest pair is its and it's: say "it is" in your head, and if that fits, write "it's"; a Londoner's "It's bare cold" means "It is very cold", while "The dog wagged its tail" has no apostrophe at all. # source = school lesson (ours) # course = english # lesson = 034-apostrophes-missing-letters-and-belonging.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): R5-strong ×6, R6-punct-agree ×5, R7-rel-agree ×2 1 The the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 3 det _ _ 2 trickiest tricky ADJ JJS Degree=Sup 3 amod _ _ 3 pair pair NOUN NN Number=Sing 0 root _ _ 4 is be AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 5 cop _ _ 5 its its PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 3 nmod _ _ 6 and and CCONJ CC _ 10 cc _ _ 7 it it PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 8 nsubj _ Agree=R5-strong|Haiku=10:nsubj 8 's be AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 10 cop _ _ 9 : : PUNCT : _ 10 punct _ _ 10 say say VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 5 conj _ _ 11 " " PUNCT `` _ 17 punct _ _ 12 it it PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 13 nsubj _ Agree=R5-strong|Haiku=17:nsubj 13 is be AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 17 cop _ _ 14 " " PUNCT '' _ 13 punct _ Agree=R6-punct-agree|Haiku=17:punct|HaikuPos=PUNCT:``:_ 15 in in ADP IN _ 17 case _ _ 16 your your PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 17 nmod:poss _ _ 17 head head NOUN NN Number=Sing 10 obl _ Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=10:ccomp 18 , , PUNCT , _ 24 punct _ _ 19 and and CCONJ CC _ 24 cc _ _ 20 if if SCONJ IN _ 22 mark _ _ 21 that that PRON DT Number=Sing|PronType=Dem 22 nsubj _ _ 22 fits fit VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 24 advcl _ _ 23 , , PUNCT , _ 22 punct _ _ 24 write write VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 10 conj _ Agree=R5-strong|Haiku=17:parataxis 25 " " PUNCT `` _ 27 punct _ Agree=R6-punct-agree|Haiku=51:punct 26 it it PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 27 nsubj _ Agree=R5-strong|Haiku=51:nsubj 27 's be AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 24 ccomp _ Agree=R5-strong|Haiku=51:cop 28 " " PUNCT '' _ 27 punct _ Agree=R6-punct-agree|Haiku=51:punct|HaikuPos=PUNCT:``:_ 29 ; ; PUNCT , _ 51 punct _ _ 30 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 31 det _ _ 31 Londoner londoner NOUN NN Number=Sing 37 nmod:poss _ _ 32 's 's PART POS _ 31 case _ _ 33 " " PUNCT `` _ 37 punct _ _ 34 It it PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 37 nsubj _ _ 35 's be AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 37 cop _ _ 36 bare bare ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 37 amod _ _ 37 cold cold ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 39 nsubj _ _ 38 " " PUNCT '' _ 37 punct _ Agree=R6-punct-agree|Haiku=39:punct|HaikuPos=PUNCT:``:_ 39 means mean VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 24 conj _ _ 40 " " PUNCT `` _ 44 punct _ _ 41 It it PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 44 nsubj _ _ 42 is be AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 44 cop _ _ 43 very very ADV RB _ 44 advmod _ _ 44 cold cold ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 39 ccomp _ Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=39:parataxis 45 " " PUNCT '' _ 44 punct _ _ 46 , , PUNCT , _ 51 punct _ _ 47 while while SCONJ IN _ 51 mark _ _ 48 " " PUNCT `` _ 51 punct _ _ 49 The the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 50 det _ _ 50 dog dog NOUN NN Number=Sing 51 nsubj _ _ 51 wagged wag VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 24 conj _ _ 52 its its PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 53 nmod:poss _ _ 53 tail tail NOUN NN Number=Sing 51 obj _ Agree=R5-strong|Haiku=55:nsubj 54 " " PUNCT '' _ 51 punct _ Agree=R6-punct-agree|Haiku=53:punct 55 has have VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 51 ccomp _ _ 56 no no DET DT PronType=Neg 57 det _ _ 57 apostrophe apostrophe NOUN NN Number=Sing 55 obj _ _ 58 at at ADP IN _ 59 case _ _ 59 all all DET DT PronType=Tot 57 nmod _ _ 60 . . PUNCT . _ 3 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} No stored speech act for this sentence. | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **is a** | present | | apostrophe | | | | | tree rules | | 2 | **be** *speech: assert* | present | | | | | | say *property* | tree rules | | 3 | **is** | present | | | | your head | | | tree rules | | 4 | **fit** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | that | | | | | | vn adjust-26.9 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent | | 5 | **write** | infinitive | | | | | | | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | | 6 | **is** *in a quote* | present | apostrophe | | | | | cold *property* | tree rules | | 7 | **mean** | present | a Londoner's bare cold | | | | | | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent | | 8 | **is** *in a quote* | present | apostrophe | | | | | cold *property* | tree rules | | 9 | **wag** *in a quote* | past | the dog | apostrophe's tail | | | | | tree rules | | 10 | **have** | present | the dog *not said here* | no apostrophe | | all | | | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent apostrophe=Patient | 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. **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:034-apostrophes-missing-letters-and-belonging.lesson:4`. **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): R5-strong ×6, R6-punct-agree ×5, R7-rel-agree ×2. **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/). - ← previous: [Apostrophes: missing letters and belon…, 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/34-apostrophes-missing-letters-and-belonging/3/) - next →: [Apostrophes: missing letters and belon…, 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/34-apostrophes-missing-letters-and-belonging/5/) - ↑ back to [the lesson](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/34-apostrophes-missing-letters-and-belonging/)