EnglishMatrix Data Models: Word, Complement, VerbEntry

EnglishMatrix uses four internal C# classes to represent its vocabulary and conjugation data. All instances are created at startup as static lists embedded directly in the source file — no database or external files are required.

`Word`

Word is the general-purpose model used for subjects, verbs (in verbsForSentences), place expressions, and time expressions. The Accepts property is only meaningful for verbs.

class Word
{
    public string English  { get; set; }
    public string Spanish  { get; set; }
    public string Category { get; set; }
    public string Accepts  { get; set; } = "any";
}

English

string

required

The English word or phrase. For subjects this is the subject pronoun or noun phrase (e.g., "I", "The teacher"). For verbs it is the bare infinitive (e.g., "eat"). For places and times it is the full expression (e.g., "at home", "every day").

Spanish

string

required

The Spanish translation of English. For place expressions this includes the preposition (e.g., "en casa"). For subject pronouns it is the standard translation (e.g., "Yo", "Ella").

Value	List	Example
`subject`	`subjects`	`"I"`, `"The teacher"`
`verb`	`verbsForSentences`	`"eat"`, `"run"`
`place`	`places`	`"at home"`
`time`	`times`	`"every day"`

Value	Meaning
`food`	Accepts food items (e.g., eat, cook, order)
`drink`	Accepts beverages (e.g., drink)
`thing`	Accepts physical objects (e.g., buy, find, open)
`person`	Accepts human complements (e.g., help, love, call)
`abstract`	Accepts abstract concepts (e.g., need, want, feel, study)
`none`	No complement — intransitive verb (e.g., run, sleep, jump)
`any`	Accepts any complement type (default for non-verb words)
`place`	Accepts a place expression as complement (used by `live`)

`Complement`

Complement represents the direct object of a generated sentence. All 96 complement entries are stored in the static complements list.

class Complement
{
    public string English { get; set; }
    public string Spanish { get; set; }
    public string Type    { get; set; }
}

English

string

required

The complement phrase in English. May include an article (e.g., "the book", "a sandwich") or stand alone (e.g., "money", "pizza").

Spanish

string

required

The Spanish translation of the complement. Person complements include the personal-a (e.g., "a mi amigo", "al enemigo").

Type

string

required

Semantic category used to match this complement against Word.Accepts. Valid values:

Value	Description	Example complements
`food`	Edible items and meals	`"tacos"`, `"pizza"`, `"a sandwich"`
`drink`	Beverages	`"water"`, `"coffee"`, `"tea"`
`thing`	Physical objects and items	`"the book"`, `"the car"`, `"the phone"`
`person`	People and relationships	`"my friend"`, `"the doctor"`, `"the enemy"`
`abstract`	Concepts, emotions, skills	`"money"`, `"English"`, `"courage"`

`VerbEntry`

VerbEntry stores all five morphological forms of a verb plus its Spanish infinitive and regularity flag. All 191 entries live in the static verbList. This list is used by the verb reference table, verb quiz, tense table mode, and by BuildEnglishVerb when looking up irregular forms.

class VerbEntry
{
    public string Infinitive  { get; set; }
    public string Past        { get; set; }
    public string Participle  { get; set; }
    public string Gerund      { get; set; }
    public string SpanishInf  { get; set; }
    public bool   IsRegular   { get; set; }
}

Infinitive

string

required

The base (infinitive) form of the English verb, e.g. "eat", "run", "be". Used as the lookup key throughout the engine.

Past

string

required

The simple past form, e.g. "ate", "ran", "was/were". Read by GetPast() and used by BuildEnglishVerb for Tense.PastSimple.

Participle

string

required

The past participle form, e.g. "eaten", "run", "been". Read by GetParticiple() and used by BuildEnglishVerb for Tense.PresentPerfect.

Gerund

string

required

The present participle / gerund form, e.g. "eating", "running", "being". Read by GetGerund() and used by BuildEnglishVerb for Tense.PresentContinuous and Tense.PastContinuous.

SpanishInf

string

required

The Spanish infinitive translation, e.g. "comer", "correr", "ser/estar". Used by BuildSpanishVerb as the base for constructing Spanish future simple (ir a + infinitivo), continuous forms (gerundio), and conditional stems.

IsRegular

bool

required

true if the verb forms its past and past participle with the regular -ed rule. false if the verb is irregular (past/participle must be looked up, not generated). The verb quiz and list modes use this flag to separate the two groups.

Regular example: accept → past: accepted, participle: accepted
Irregular example: eat → past: ate, participle: eaten

`SpanishConj`

SpanishConj stores Spanish conjugations for the three grammatical persons used by the sentence engine: first-person singular (yo), third-person singular (él/ella), and first-person plural (nosotros). There are 190 entries in the conjugaciones dictionary, keyed by English infinitive.

class SpanishConj
{
    public string YoPres  { get; set; }
    public string ElPres  { get; set; }
    public string NosPres { get; set; }
    public string YoPast  { get; set; }
    public string ElPast  { get; set; }
    public string NosPast { get; set; }
}

YoPres

string

required

First-person singular present tense (yo). Used when the English subject is "I". Example: "como" (eat), "corro" (run).

ElPres

string

required

Third-person singular present tense (él/ella). Used for subjects other than "I", "we", "they", or "you". Example: "come" (eat), "corre" (run).

NosPres

string

required

First-person plural present tense (nosotros). Used when the English subject is "we", "they", or "you". Example: "comemos" (eat), "corremos" (run).

YoPast

string

required

First-person singular simple past (yo pretérito). Example: "comí" (ate), "corrí" (ran).

ElPast

string

required

Third-person singular simple past (él/ella pretérito). Example: "comió", "corrió".

NosPast

string

required

First-person plural simple past (nosotros pretérito). Example: "comimos", "corrimos".

Several reflexive verbs include the reflexive pronoun directly in the stored form. For example, hide is stored as YoPres = "me escondo", ElPres = "se esconde", NosPres = "nos escondemos". Similarly, dress → "me visto" / "se viste" / "nos vestimos", and worry → "me preocupo" / "se preocupa" / "nos preocupamos". These forms are used verbatim by BuildSpanishVerb and appear correctly in generated sentences.

Complement compatibility

GenerateSentence matches Word.Accepts (on the verb) against Complement.Type (on the complement) before assembling a sentence. This prevents semantically nonsensical pairings. The matching rule in source:

var compatible = complements.Where(c =>
    verb.Accepts == "any"
    || c.Type == verb.Accepts
    || (verb.Accepts == "abstract" &&
        (c.Type == "abstract" || c.Type == "thing" || c.Type == "person"))
).ToList();

The resulting compatibility matrix is:

`Word.Accepts`	`food`	`drink`	`thing`	`person`	`abstract`
`food`	✅	❌	❌	❌	❌
`drink`	❌	✅	❌	❌	❌
`thing`	❌	❌	✅	❌	❌
`person`	❌	❌	❌	✅	❌
`abstract`	❌	❌	✅	✅	✅
`any`	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
`none`	—	—	—	—	—

Verbs with Accepts = "none" (e.g., run, sleep, jump) skip the complement selection step entirely and produce sentences with no direct object. The abstract type deliberately broadens to include thing and person complements. This means a verb like need can generate "I need the book" (thing) or "I need the doctor" (person), not just purely abstract nouns.

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Modes & Features

Reference

EnglishMatrix Data Models: Word, Complement, VerbEntry

`Word`

`Complement`

`VerbEntry`

`SpanishConj`

Complement compatibility

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Modes & Features

Reference

Documentation Index

​Word

​Complement

​VerbEntry

​SpanishConj

​Complement compatibility

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

`Word`

`Complement`

`VerbEntry`

`SpanishConj`

Complement compatibility