---
title: He spent his evenings preparing wooden soles for skates, for he knew… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: He spent his evenings preparing wooden soles for skates, for he knew, he said, that in a few weeks these shoes would be wanted for the amusement of skating. Who acts: owner. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Mail-coach Passengers, with its dependency tree 
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Mail-coach Passengers, sentence 82

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He spent his evenings preparing wooden soles for skates, for he knew, he said, that in a few weeks these shoes would be wanted for the amusement of skating.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** owner · **What happens:** spend, prepare, know, say, want, amuse · **To what, where:** wooden soles, that, skating · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Mail-coach Passengers. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (owner), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg27200:82:82
# text = He spent his evenings preparing wooden soles for skates, for he knew, he said, that in a few weeks these shoes would be wanted for the amusement of skating.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	spent	spend	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	evenings	evening	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	_
5	preparing	prepare	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	2	advcl	_	_
6	wooden	wooden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	soles	sole	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obj	_	_
8	for	for	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	skates	skate	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
18	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	27	nsubj	_	_
19	in	in	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	weeks	week	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	obl	_	_
23	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	24	det	_	_
24	shoes	shoe	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	nsubj:pass	_	_
25	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
26	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	aux:pass	_	_
27	wanted	want	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	ccomp	_	_
28	for	for	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	amusement	amusement	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	_
31	of	of	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	skating	skating	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **spend** | past | owner |  |  |  | evening |  | vn consume-66-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **prepare** | gerund | owner *not said here* | wooden soles |  |  |  | for skates | vn preparing-26.3-1 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent sole=Product for skate=Beneficiary |
| 3 | **know** | past | owner |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | owner |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **want** | would · passive |  | that |  |  | week | for the amusement of skating | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: subject=Theme |
| 6 | **amuse** |  |  | skating |  |  |  |  | nom amusement «feeling transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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**Text:** «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Project Gutenberg book 27200 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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