---
title: Then there are the question words: qui (who), quoi (what), où (where… — Questions and simple sentences · tree and pragmatics
description: Then there are the question words: qui (who), quoi (what), où (where), quand (when), comment (how), pourquoi (why) and combien (how many) - with pourquoi always answered by parce que (because). Who acts: question words, parce que. A sentence of the lesson «Questions and simple sentences» of the fren
---

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# Questions and simple sentences, sentence 2

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Then there are the question words: qui (who), quoi (what), où (where), quand (when), comment (how), pourquoi (why) and combien (how many) - with pourquoi always answered by parce que (because).

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**Who acts:** question words, parce que · **What happens:** be, answer · **To what, where:** pourquoi

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This is a sentence of the lesson «Questions and simple sentences» 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 (question words, parce que), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = school:french:030-questions-and-simple-sentences.lesson:2
# text = Then there are the question words: qui (who), quoi (what), où (where), quand (when), comment (how), pourquoi (why) and combien (how many) - with pourquoi always answered by parce que (because).
# source = school lesson (ours)
# course = french
# lesson = 030-questions-and-simple-sentences.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 ×1, R7-rel-agree ×3
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	3	expl	_	_
3	are	be	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	question	question	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	compound	_	_
6	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
7	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	8	punct	_	_
8	qui	qui	NOUN	FW	Abbr=Yes|Number=Plur	6	appos	_	Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=6:conj
9	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	10	punct	_	_
10	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	6	appos	_	_
11	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	10	punct	_	_
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
13	quoi	quoi	NOUN	FW	Abbr=Yes|Number=Plur	8	conj	_	Agree=R5-strong|Haiku=6:conj
14	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	15	punct	_	_
15	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	6	appos	_	_
16	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	15	punct	_	_
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
18	où	où	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	appos	_	_
19	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	20	punct	_	_
20	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	18	advmod	_	Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=18:nmod
21	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	20	punct	_	_
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
23	quand	quand	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	conj	_	_
24	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	25	punct	_	_
25	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	23	advmod	_	Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=23:nmod
26	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	25	punct	_	_
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
28	comment	comment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	appos	_	_
29	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	30	punct	_	_
30	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	28	acl	_	_
31	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	30	punct	_	_
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
33	pourquoi	pourquoi	NOUN	FW	Abbr=Yes|Number=Plur	6	conj	_	_
34	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	35	punct	_	_
35	why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	6	appos	_	_
36	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	35	punct	_	_
37	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	38	cc	_	_
38	combien	combien	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	conj	_	_
39	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	41	punct	_	_
40	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	41	advmod	_	_
41	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	appos	_	_
42	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	41	punct	_	_
43	-	-	PUNCT	,	_	47	punct	_	_
44	with	with	SCONJ	IN	_	47	mark	_	_
45	pourquoi	pourquoi	X	FW	Foreign=Yes	47	nsubj:pass	_	_
46	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	47	advmod	_	_
47	answered	answer	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	advcl	_	_
48	by	by	ADP	IN	_	50	case	_	_
49	parce	parce	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	50	compound	_	_
50	que	que	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	47	obl	_	_
51	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	52	punct	_	_
52	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	47	obl	_	_
53	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	52	punct	_	_
54	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed act=assert

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **does** | present | the question words and pourquoi |  |  | there | then |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **answer** *speech: assert* | participle · passive | parce que | pourquoi |  |  |  | always *property* | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent subject=Eventuality |

<!-- .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.

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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:french:030-questions-and-simple-sentences.lesson:2`.

**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 ×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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- ← previous: [Questions and simple sentences, 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/30-questions-and-simple-sentences/1/)
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