--- title: Most English plurals just add -s or -es (cat, cats; box, boxes), but… — Plurals that make no sense: mice, sheep and geese · tree and pragmatics description: Most English plurals just add -s or -es (cat, cats; box, boxes), but some very old words change the vowel inside instead: mouse, mice; goose, geese; foot, feet; tooth, teeth; man, men. Who acts: Most English plurals, old words. A sentence of the lesson «Plurals that make no sense: mice, sheep and ge --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/10-plurals-mice-sheep-and-geese/0/) [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/) / [Language](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/) / [Plurals that make no sense: mice, shee…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/10-plurals-mice-sheep-and-geese/) / 0 # Plurals that make no sense: mice, sheep and geese, sentence 0 Most English plurals just add -s or -es (cat, cats; box, boxes), but some very old words change the vowel inside instead: mouse, mice; goose, geese; foot, feet; tooth, teeth; man, men. **Who acts:** Most English plurals, old words · **What happens:** add, change · **To what, where:** -s, vowel This is a sentence of the lesson «Plurals that make no sense: mice, sheep and geese» of the language 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 (Most English plurals, old words), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. ## The tree {#tree} ```conllu # sent_id = school:language:010-plurals-mice-sheep-and-geese.lesson:0 # text = Most English plurals just add -s or -es (cat, cats; box, boxes), but some very old words change the vowel inside instead: mouse, mice; goose, geese; foot, feet; tooth, teeth; man, men. # source = school lesson (ours) # course = language # lesson = 010-plurals-mice-sheep-and-geese.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 ×3, R7-rel-agree ×2, R8-pos-agree ×1 1 Most most ADJ JJS Degree=Sup 3 amod _ _ 2 English English ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 3 amod _ _ 3 plurals plural NOUN NNS Number=Plur 5 nsubj _ _ 4 just just ADV RB _ 5 advmod _ _ 5 add add VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ Agree=R8-pos-agree|Haiku=0:root|HaikuPos=VERB:VB:Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin 6 -s - NOUN NNS Number=Plur 5 obj _ _ 7 or or CCONJ CC _ 9 cc _ _ 8 - - PUNCT HYPH _ 7 punct _ _ 9 es e NOUN NNS Number=Plur 6 conj _ _ 10 ( ( PUNCT -LRB- _ 11 punct _ _ 11 cat cat NOUN NN Number=Sing 9 appos _ _ 12 , , PUNCT , _ 13 punct _ _ 13 cats cat NOUN NNS Number=Plur 11 conj _ _ 14 ; ; PUNCT , _ 15 punct _ _ 15 box box NOUN NN Number=Sing 11 conj _ Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=11:list 16 , , PUNCT , _ 17 punct _ _ 17 boxes box NOUN NNS Number=Plur 11 conj _ _ 18 ) ) PUNCT -RRB- _ 11 punct _ _ 19 , , PUNCT , _ 25 punct _ _ 20 but but CCONJ CC _ 25 cc _ _ 21 some some DET DT PronType=Ind 24 det _ _ 22 very very ADV RB _ 23 advmod _ _ 23 old old ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 24 amod _ _ 24 words word NOUN NNS Number=Plur 25 nsubj _ _ 25 change change VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 5 conj _ Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=5:advcl|HaikuPos=VERB:VB:VerbForm=Inf 26 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 27 det _ _ 27 vowel vowel NOUN NN Number=Sing 25 obj _ _ 28 inside inside ADV RB _ 25 advmod _ _ 29 instead instead ADV RB _ 25 advmod _ _ 30 : : PUNCT : _ 25 punct _ _ 31 mouse mouse NOUN NN Number=Sing 25 parataxis _ Agree=R5-strong|Haiku=5:obl 32 , , PUNCT , _ 33 punct _ _ 33 mice mouse NOUN NNS Number=Plur 31 conj _ Agree=R5-strong|Haiku=5:obj 34 ; ; PUNCT , _ 35 punct _ _ 35 goose goose NOUN NN Number=Sing 33 conj _ _ 36 , , PUNCT , _ 37 punct _ _ 37 geese geese NOUN NNS Number=Plur 31 conj _ Agree=R5-strong|Haiku=35:conj 38 ; ; PUNCT , _ 39 punct _ _ 39 foot foot NOUN NN Number=Sing 35 conj _ _ 40 , , PUNCT , _ 41 punct _ _ 41 feet foot NOUN NNS Number=Plur 35 conj _ _ 42 ; ; PUNCT , _ 43 punct _ _ 43 tooth tooth NOUN NN Number=Sing 35 conj _ _ 44 , , PUNCT , _ 45 punct _ _ 45 teeth tooth NOUN NNS Number=Plur 35 conj _ _ 46 ; ; PUNCT , _ 47 punct _ _ 47 man man NOUN NN Number=Sing 35 conj _ _ 48 , , PUNCT , _ 49 punct _ _ 49 men man NOUN NNS Number=Plur 35 conj _ _ 50 . . PUNCT . _ 5 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} No stored speech act for this sentence. | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **add** *speech: assert* | present | Most English plurals | -s or es | | | | | vn mix-22.1-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent -=Patient | | 2 | **change** | present | some old words | the vowel | | | | inside, instead *property* | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent vowel=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:language:010-plurals-mice-sheep-and-geese.lesson:0`. **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 ×3, R7-rel-agree ×2, 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/). - ← previous: [Irregular verbs: goed, brung and other…, 18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/9-irregular-verbs-goed-brung-and-brave-mistakes/18/) - next →: [Plurals that make no sense: mice, shee…, 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/10-plurals-mice-sheep-and-geese/1/) - ↑ back to [the lesson](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/10-plurals-mice-sheep-and-geese/)