---
title: Standard English is the dialect used for school writing, exams, news… — Standard English and dialect: "we was" in talk,… · tree and pragmatics
description: Standard English is the dialect used for school writing, exams, newspapers and formal letters all over the English-speaking world; it is not "better", it is the shared one, like a common plug that fits every socket. Who acts: Standard English, world, common plug. A sentence of the lesson «Standard E
---

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# Standard English and dialect: "we was" in talk, "we were" in writing, sentence 1

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Standard English is the dialect used for school writing, exams, newspapers and formal letters all over the English-speaking world; it is not "better", it is the shared one, like a common plug that fits every socket.

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**Who acts:** Standard English, world, common plug · **What happens:** be, use, speak, not be, share, fit · **To what, where:** dialect, speaking world, shared one, socket · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of the lesson «Standard English and dialect: "we was" in talk, "we were" in writing» 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 (Standard English, world, common plug), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = school:english:038-standard-english-and-dialect-we-was-and-we-were.lesson:1
# text = Standard English is the dialect used for school writing, exams, newspapers and formal letters all over the English-speaking world; it is not "better", it is the shared one, like a common plug that fits every socket.
# source = school lesson (ours)
# course = english
# lesson = 038-standard-english-and-dialect-we-was-and-we-were.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): R3-conj-first ×2, R6-punct-agree ×1, R7-rel-agree ×3
1	Standard	Standard	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	compound	_	_
2	English	English	PROPN	NNP	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	dialect	dialect	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
6	used	use	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	acl	_	_
7	for	for	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	school	school	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	compound	_	_
9	writing	writing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
11	exams	exam	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	conj	_	_
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
13	newspapers	newspaper	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	conj	_	Agree=R3-conj-first|Haiku=11:conj
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	formal	formal	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	letters	letter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	conj	_	Agree=R3-conj-first|Haiku=11:conj
17	all	all	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
18	over	over	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
20	English	English	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	22	compound	_	Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=22:amod|HaikuPos=ADJ:JJ:Degree=Pos
21	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	22	punct	_	_
22	speaking	speak	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	23	amod	_	_
23	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
24	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
25	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
26	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	29	cop	_	_
27	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	29	advmod	_	_
28	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	29	punct	_	_
29	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	5	parataxis	_	_
30	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	29	punct	_	Agree=R6-punct-agree|Haiku=20:punct
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
32	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	36	nsubj	_	_
33	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	36	cop	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
35	shared	share	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	36	amod	_	_
36	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	parataxis	_	Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=29:conj|HaikuPos=NUM:CD:NumForm=Word|NumType=Card
37	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
38	like	like	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
39	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	41	det	_	_
40	common	common	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	41	amod	_	_
41	plug	plug	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	nmod	_	Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=36:appos
42	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	43	nsubj	_	_
43	fits	fit	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	41	acl:relcl	_	_
44	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	45	det	_	_
45	socket	socket	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	43	obj	_	_
46	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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No stored speech act for this sentence.

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | Standard English | the dialect |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **use** | participle |  | the dialect *not said here* |  | the speaking world |  | for school writing and exams and newspapers and formal letters | vn eat-39.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **speak** *speech: other* | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **not** **is** *in a quote* | present | world |  |  |  |  | good *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **share** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **is a** | present | world | the shared one |  |  |  | like a common plug | tree rules |
| 7 | **fit** | present | a common plug | every socket |  |  |  |  | vn adjust-26.9 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent socket=Patient |

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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:038-standard-english-and-dialect-we-was-and-we-were.lesson:1`.

**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): R3-conj-first ×2, R6-punct-agree ×1, R7-rel-agree ×3. **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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