---
title: Some letter pairs have fixed sounds: ch says "sh", j says the "zh" i… — Funny French sounds: nasal vowels, the French r… · tree and pragmatics
description: Some letter pairs have fixed sounds: ch says "sh", j says the "zh" in "measure", qu says "k" and th says "t", so le chat (the cat) is "luh SHA". Who acts: letter pairs, ch, j, qu. A sentence of the lesson «Funny French sounds: nasal vowels, the French r and u» of the french course of Mova's primary 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/2-funny-french-sounds-nasal-vowels-the-french-r-and-u/5/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[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/) / [French](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/) / [Funny French sounds: nasal vowels, the…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/2-funny-french-sounds-nasal-vowels-the-french-r-and-u/) / 5

# Funny French sounds: nasal vowels, the French r and u, sentence 5

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Some letter pairs have fixed sounds: ch says "sh", j says the "zh" in "measure", qu says "k" and th says "t", so le chat (the cat) is "luh SHA".

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** letter pairs, ch, j, qu, th, le chat · **What happens:** have, say, be · **To what, where:** fixed sounds, sh, zh, measure, k, t · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of the lesson «Funny French sounds: nasal vowels, the French r and u» of the french 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 (letter pairs, ch, j, qu), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = school:french:002-funny-french-sounds-nasal-vowels-the-french-r-and-u.lesson:5
# text = Some letter pairs have fixed sounds: ch says "sh", j says the "zh" in "measure", qu says "k" and th says "t", so le chat (the cat) is "luh SHA".
# source = school lesson (ours)
# course = french
# lesson = 002-funny-french-sounds-nasal-vowels-the-french-r-and-u.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 ×1, R8-pos-agree ×1
1	Some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	3	det	_	_
2	letter	letter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	compound	_	_
3	pairs	pair	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	fixed	fix	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	sounds	sound	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	_
7	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	9	punct	_	_
8	ch	ch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
9	says	say	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
10	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	11	punct	_	_
11	sh	sh	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
12	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	11	punct	_	_
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	j	J	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
15	says	say	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	_
18	zh	zh	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
19	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	18	punct	_	_
20	in	in	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	22	punct	_	_
22	measure	measure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	_
23	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	22	punct	_	_
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
25	qu	qu	NOUN	FW	Abbr=Yes|Number=Plur	26	nsubj	_	_
26	says	say	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	Agree=R3-conj-first|Haiku=15:conj
27	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	28	punct	_	_
28	k	k	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
29	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	28	punct	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
31	th	th	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	32	nsubj	_	_
32	says	say	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	26	conj	_	_
33	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	34	punct	_	_
34	t	t	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obj	_	_
35	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	34	punct	_	_
36	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
37	so	so	ADV	RB	_	47	advmod	_	_
38	le	Le	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	39	compound	_	Agree=R8-pos-agree|Haiku=39:compound|HaikuPos=NOUN:NN:Number=Sing
39	chat	chat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	47	nsubj	_	_
40	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	42	punct	_	_
41	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	42	det	_	_
42	cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	appos	_	_
43	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	42	punct	_	_
44	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	47	cop	_	_
45	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	47	punct	_	_
46	luh	luh	INTJ	UH	_	47	discourse	_	_
47	SHA	SHA	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	32	advcl	_	_
48	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	47	punct	_	_
49	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed voice=narrator

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | present | some letter pairs | fixed sounds |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sound=Patient |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | ch | sh |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent sh=Topic |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | j | the zh |  | measure |  |  | vn pronounce-29.3.1 «NP V NP PP.manner»: agent=Agent zh=Theme in measure=Manner |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | qu | k |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent k=Topic |
| 5 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | th | t |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent t=Topic |
| 6 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | le chat | SHA |  |  |  |  | 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.

<!-- div src -->

**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:french:002-funny-french-sounds-nasal-vowels-the-french-r-and-u.lesson:5`.

**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 ×1, R8-pos-agree ×1. **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/).

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [Funny French sounds: nasal vowels, the…, 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/2-funny-french-sounds-nasal-vowels-the-french-r-and-u/4/)
- next →: [Funny French sounds: nasal vowels, the…, 6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/2-funny-french-sounds-nasal-vowels-the-french-r-and-u/6/)
- ↑ back to [the lesson](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/2-funny-french-sounds-nasal-vowels-the-french-r-and-u/)