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In linguistic typology, subject–verb–object (SVO) is a sentence structure where the subject comes first, the verb second, and the object third. Languages may be classified according to the dominant sequence of these elements in unmarked sentences (i.e., sentences in which an unusual word order is not used for emphasis). English is included in this group. An example is «Sam ate yogurt.»
| Word order |
English equivalent |
Proportion of languages |
Example languages |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SOV | «Cows grass eat.» | 45% | Ancient Greek, Bengali, Burmese, Hindi/Urdu, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Persian, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, Turkish, etc | |
| SVO | «Cows eat grass.» | 42% | Chinese, English, French, Hausa, Italian, Malay, Portuguese, Spanish, Swahili, Thai, Vietnamese, etc | |
| VSO | «Eat cows grass.» | 9% | Biblical Hebrew, Classical Arabic, Filipino, Irish, Māori, Tuareg-Berber, Welsh | |
| VOS | «Eat grass cows.» | 3% | Car, Fijian, Malagasy, Qʼeqchiʼ, Terêna | |
| OVS | «Grass eat cows.» | 1% | Hixkaryana, Urarina | |
| OSV | «Grass cows eat.» | 0% | Tobati, Warao | |
Frequency distribution of word order in languages surveyed by Russell S. Tomlin in the 1980s[1][2] (
) |
SVO is the second-most common order by number of known languages, after SOV. Together, SVO and SOV account for more than 87% of the world’s languages.[3]
The label SVO often includes ergative languages although they do not have nominative subjects.
Properties[edit]
Subject–verb–object languages almost always place relative clauses after the nouns which they modify and adverbial subordinators before the clause modified, with varieties of Chinese being notable exceptions.
Although some subject–verb–object languages in West Africa, the best known being Ewe, use postpositions in noun phrases, the vast majority of them, such as English, have prepositions. Most subject–verb–object languages place genitives after the noun, but a significant minority, including the postpositional SVO languages of West Africa, the Hmong–Mien languages, some Sino-Tibetan languages, and European languages like Swedish, Danish, Lithuanian and Latvian have prenominal genitives[4] (as would be expected in an SOV language).
Non-European SVO languages usually have a strong tendency to place adjectives, demonstratives and numerals after the nouns that they modify, but Chinese, Vietnamese, Malaysian and Indonesian place numerals before nouns, as in English. Some linguists have come to view the numeral as the head in the relationship to fit the rigid right-branching of these languages.[5]
There is a strong tendency, as in English, for main verbs to be preceded by auxiliaries: I am thinking. He should reconsider.
Language differences and variation[edit]
An example of SVO order in English is:
- Andy ate cereal.
In an analytic language such as English, subject–verb–object order is relatively inflexible because it identifies which part of the sentence is the subject and which one is the object. («The dog bit Andy» and «Andy bit the dog» mean two completely different things, while, in case of «Bit Andy the dog», it may be difficult to determine whether it’s a complete sentence or a fragment, with «Andy the dog» the object and an omitted/implied subject.)
The situation is more complex in languages that have no strict order of V and O imposed by their grammar. e.g. Russian, Finnish, Ukrainian, or Hungarian. Here, the ordering is rather governed by emphasis. Russian allows the use of subject, verb, and object in any order and «shuffles» parts to bring up a slightly different contextual meaning each time. E.g. «любит она его» (loves she him) may be used to point out «she acts this way because she LOVES him», or «его она любит» (him she loves) is used in the context «if you pay attention, you’ll see that HE is the one she truly loves», or «его любит она» (him loves she) may appear along the lines «I agree that cat is a disaster, but since my wife adores it and I adore her…». Regardless of order, it is clear that «его» is the object because it is in the accusative case. In Polish, SVO order is basic in an affirmative sentence, and a different order is used to either emphasize some part of it or to adapt it to a broader context logic. For example, «Roweru ci nie kupię» (I won’t buy you a bicycle), «Od piątej czekam» (I’ve been waiting since five).[6]
In Turkish, it is normal to use SOV, but SVO may be used sometimes to emphasize the verb. For example, «John terketti Mary’yi» (Lit. John/left/Mary: John left Mary) is the answer to the question «What did John do with Mary?» instead of the regular [SOV] sentence «John Mary’yi terketti» (Lit. John/Mary/left).
German, Dutch, and Kashmiri display the order subject-verb-object in some, especially main clauses, but really are verb-second languages, not SVO languages in the sense of a word order type.[7] They have SOV in subordinate clauses, as given in Example 1 below. Example 2 shows the effect of verb second order: the first element in the clause that comes before the V need not be the subject. In Kashmiri, the word order in embedded clauses is conditioned by the category of the subordinating conjunction, as in Example 3.
- «Er weiß, dass ich jeden Sonntag das Auto wasche.»/»Hij weet dat ik elke zondag de auto was.» (German & Dutch respectively: «He knows that I wash the car each Sunday», lit. «He knows that I each Sunday the car wash».) Cf. the simple sentence «Ich wasche das Auto jeden Sonntag.»/ «Ik was de auto elke zondag.», «I wash the car each Sunday.»
- «Jeden Sonntag wasche ich das Auto.»/»Elke zondag was ik de auto.» (German & Dutch respectively: «Each Sunday I wash the car.», lit. «Each Sunday wash I the car.»). «Ich wasche das Auto jeden Sonntag»/»Ik was de auto elke zondag» translates perfectly into English «I wash the car each Sunday», but preposing the adverbial results in a structure that is different from the English one.
- Kashmiri:
«I was afraid you might give him the letter»
-
- If the embedded clause is introduced by the transparent conjunction zyi the SOV order changes to SVO. «mye ees phyikyir (zyi) tsi maa dyikh temyis ciThy».[8]
English developed from such a reordering language and still bears traces of this word order, for example in locative inversion («In the garden sat a cat.») and some clauses beginning with negative expressions: «only» («Only then do we find X.»), «not only» («Not only did he storm away but also slammed the door.»), «under no circumstances» («under no circumstances are the students allowed to use a mobile phone»), «never» («Never have I done that.»), «on no account» and the like. In such cases, do-support is sometimes required, depending on the construction.
See also[edit]
- Subject–object–verb
- Object–subject–verb
- Object–verb–subject
- Verb–object–subject
- Verb–subject–object
- V2 word order
- Category:Subject–verb–object languages
References[edit]
- ^ Meyer, Charles F. (2010). Introducing English Linguistics International (Student ed.). Cambridge University Press.
- ^ Tomlin, Russell S. (1986). Basic Word Order: Functional Principles. London: Croom Helm. p. 22. ISBN 9780709924999. OCLC 13423631.
- ^ Crystal, David (1997). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-55967-7.
- ^ «Order of Genitive and Noun».
- ^ Donohue, Mark (2007). «Word order in Austronesian from north to south and west to east». Linguistic Typology. 11 (2): 379. doi:10.1515/LINGTY.2007.026. S2CID 49214413.
- ^ Bielec, Dana (2007). «Polish, An Essential Grammar». Routledge: 272.
- ^ The typological database WALS treats German as a language without fixed basic order; see WALS chapter 81.
- ^ Hook, P. E. & Koul, O. N. (1996). Lakshmi, V.S. & Mukherjee, A. (eds.). «Kashmiri as a V-2 language». Word order in Indian languages. Osmania University: Centre of Advanced Study in Linguistics. p. 102. ISBN 81-85194-42-4.
Можно ли использовать вопросительный порядок слов в утвердительных предложениях? Как построить предложение, если в нем нет подлежащего? Об этих и других нюансах читайте в нашей статье.
Прямой порядок слов в английских предложениях
Утвердительные предложения
В английском языке основной порядок слов можно описать формулой SVO: subject – verb – object (подлежащее – сказуемое – дополнение).
Mary reads many books. — Мэри читает много книг.
Подлежащее — это существительное или местоимение, которое стоит в начале предложения (кто? — Mary).
Сказуемое — это глагол, который стоит после подлежащего (что делает? — reads).
Дополнение — это существительное или местоимение, которое стоит после глагола (что? — books).
В английском отсутствуют падежи, поэтому необходимо строго соблюдать основной порядок слов, так как часто это единственное, что указывает на связь между словами.
| Подлежащее | Сказуемое | Дополнение | Перевод |
|---|---|---|---|
| My mum | loves | soap operas. | Моя мама любит мыльные оперы. |
| Sally | found | her keys. | Салли нашла свои ключи. |
| I | remember | you. | Я помню тебя. |
Глагол to be в утвердительных предложениях
Как правило, английское предложение не обходится без сказуемого, выраженного глаголом. Так как в русском можно построить предложение без глагола, мы часто забываем о нем в английском. Например:
Mary is a teacher. — Мэри — учительница. (Мэри является учительницей.)
I’m scared. — Мне страшно. (Я являюсь напуганной.)
Life is unfair. — Жизнь несправедлива. (Жизнь является несправедливой.)
My younger brother is ten years old. — Моему младшему брату десять лет. (Моему младшему брату есть десять лет.)
His friends are from Spain. — Его друзья из Испании. (Его друзья происходят из Испании.)
The vase is on the table. — Ваза на столе. (Ваза находится/стоит на столе.)
Подведем итог, глагол to be в переводе на русский может означать:
- быть/есть/являться;
- находиться / пребывать (в каком-то месте или состоянии);
- существовать;
- происходить (из какой-то местности).
Если вы не уверены, нужен ли to be в вашем предложении в настоящем времени, то переведите предложение в прошедшее время: я на работе — я была на работе. Если в прошедшем времени появляется глагол-связка, то и в настоящем он необходим.
Предложения с there is / there are
Когда мы хотим сказать, что что-то где-то есть или чего-то где-то нет, то нам нужно придерживаться конструкции there + to be в начале предложения.
There is grass in the yard, there is wood on the grass. — На дворе — трава, на траве — дрова.
Если в таких типах предложений мы не используем конструкцию there is / there are, то по-английски подобные предложения будут звучать менее естественно:
There are a lot of people in the room. — В комнате много людей. (естественно)
A lot of people are in the room. — Много людей находится в комнате. (менее естественно)
Обратите внимание, предложения с there is / there are, как правило, переводятся на русский с конца предложения.
Еще конструкция there is / there are нужна, чтобы соблюсти основной порядок слов — SVO (подлежащее – сказуемое – дополнение):
| Подлежащее | Сказуемое | Дополнение | Перевод |
|---|---|---|---|
| There | is | too much sugar in my tea. | В моем чае слишком много сахара. |
Более подробно о конструкции there is / there are можно прочитать в статье «Грамматика английского языка для начинающих, часть 3».
Местоимение it
Мы, как носители русского языка, в английских предложениях забываем не только про сказуемое, но и про подлежащее. Особенно сложно понять, как перевести на английский подобные предложения: Темнеет. Пора вставать. Приятно было пообщаться. В английском языке во всех этих предложениях должно стоять подлежащее, роль которого будет играть вводное местоимение it. Особенно важно его не забыть, если мы говорим о погоде.
It’s getting dark. — Темнеет.
It’s time to get up. — Пора вставать.
It was nice to talk to you. — Приятно было пообщаться.
Хотите научиться грамотно говорить по-английски? Тогда записывайтесь на курс практической грамматики.
Отрицательные предложения
Если предложение отрицательное, то мы ставим отрицательную частицу not после:
- вспомогательного глагола (auxiliary verb);
- модального глагола (modal verb).
| Подлежащее | Вспомогательный/Модальный глагол | Частица not | Сказуемое | Дополнение | Перевод |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sally | has | not | found | her keys. | Салли не нашла свои ключи. |
| My mum | does | not | love | soap operas. | Моя мама не любит мыльные оперы. |
| He | could | not | save | his reputation. | Он не мог спасти свою репутацию |
| I | will | not | be | yours. | Я не буду твоей. |
Если в предложении единственный глагол — to be, то ставим not после него.
| Подлежащее | Глагол to be | Частица not | Дополнение | Перевод |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Peter | is | not | an engineer. | Питер не инженер. |
| I | was | not | at work yesterday. | Я не была вчера на работе. |
| Her friends | were | not | polite enough. | Ее друзья были недостаточно вежливы. |
Порядок слов в вопросах
Для начала скажем, что вопросы бывают двух основных типов:
- закрытые вопросы (вопросы с ответом «да/нет»);
- открытые вопросы (вопросы, на которые можно дать развернутый ответ).
Закрытые вопросы
Чтобы построить вопрос «да/нет», нужно поставить модальный или вспомогательный глагол в начало предложения. Получится следующая структура: вспомогательный/модальный глагол – подлежащее – сказуемое. Следующие примеры вам помогут понять, как утвердительное предложение преобразовать в вопросительное.
She goes to the gym on Mondays. — Она ходит в зал по понедельникам.
Does she go to the gym on Mondays? — Ходит ли она в зал по понедельникам?
He can speak English fluently. — Он умеет бегло говорить по-английски.
Can he speak English fluently? — Умеет ли он бегло говорить по-английски?
Simon has always loved Katy. — Саймон всегда любил Кэти.
Has Simon always loved Katy? — Всегда ли Саймон любил Кэти?
Обратите внимание! Если в предложении есть только глагол to be, то в Present Simple и Past Simple мы перенесем его в начало предложения.
She was at home all day yesterday. — Она была дома весь день.
Was she at home all day yesterday? — Она была дома весь день?
They’re tired. — Они устали.
Are they tired? — Они устали?
Открытые вопросы
В вопросах открытого типа порядок слов такой же, только в начало предложения необходимо добавить вопросительное слово. Тогда структура предложения будет следующая: вопросительное слово – вспомогательный/модальный глагол – подлежащее – сказуемое.
Перечислим вопросительные слова: what (что?, какой?), who (кто?), where (где?, куда?), why (почему?, зачем?), how (как?), when (когда?), which (который?), whose (чей?), whom (кого?, кому?).
He was at work on Monday. — В понедельник он весь день был на работе.
Where was he on Monday? — Где он был в понедельник?
She went to the cinema yesterday. — Она вчера ходила в кино.
Where did she go yesterday? — Куда она вчера ходила?
My father watches Netflix every day. — Мой отец каждый день смотрит Netflix.
How often does your father watch Netflix? — Как часто твой отец смотрит Netflix?
Вопросы к подлежащему
В английском есть такой тип вопросов, как вопросы к подлежащему. У них порядок слов такой же, как и в утвердительных предложениях, только в начале будет стоять вопросительное слово вместо подлежащего. Сравните:
Who do you love? — Кого ты любишь? (подлежащее you)
Who loves you? — Кто тебя любит? (подлежащее who)
Whose phone did she find two days ago? — Чей телефон она вчера нашла? (подлежащее she)
Whose phone is ringing? — Чей телефон звонит? (подлежащее whose phone)
What have you done? — Что ты наделал? (подлежащее you)
What happened? — Что случилось? (подлежащее what)
Обратите внимание! После вопросительных слов who и what необходимо использовать глагол в единственном числе.
Who lives in this mansion? — Кто живет в этом особняке?
What makes us human? — Что делает нас людьми?
Косвенные вопросы
Если вам нужно что-то узнать и вы хотите звучать более вежливо, то можете начать свой вопрос с таких фраз, как: Could you tell me… ? (Можете подсказать… ?), Can you please help… ? (Можете помочь… ?) Далее задавайте вопрос, но используйте прямой порядок слов.
Could you tell me where is the post office is? — Не могли бы вы мне подсказать, где находится почта?
Do you know what time does the store opens? — Вы знаете, во сколько открывается магазин?
Если в косвенный вопрос мы трансформируем вопрос типа «да/нет», то перед вопросительной частью нам понадобится частица «ли» — if или whether.
Do you like action films? — Тебе нравятся боевики?
I wonder if/whether you like action films. — Мне интересно узнать, нравятся ли тебе экшн-фильмы.
Другие члены предложения
Прилагательное в английском стоит перед существительным, а наречие обычно — в конце предложения.
Grace Kelly was a beautiful woman. — Грейс Келли была красивой женщиной.
Andy reads well. — Энди хорошо читает.
Обстоятельство, как правило, стоит в конце предложения. Оно отвечает на вопросы как?, где?, куда?, почему?, когда?
There was no rain last summer. — Прошлым летом не было дождя.
The town hall is in the city center. — Администрация находится в центре города.
Если в предложении несколько обстоятельств, то их надо ставить в следующем порядке:
| Подлежащее + сказуемое | Обстоятельство (как?) | Обстоятельство (где?) | Обстоятельство (когда?) | Перевод |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fergie didn’t perform | very well | at the concert | two years ago. | Ферги не очень хорошо выступила на концерте два года назад. |
Чтобы подчеркнуть, когда или где что-то случилось, мы можем поставить обстоятельство места или времени в начало предложения:
Last Christmas I gave you my heart. But the very next day you gave it away. This year, to save me from tears, I’ll give it to someone special. — Прошлым Рождеством я подарил тебе свое сердце. Но уже на следующий день ты отдала его обратно. В этом году, чтобы больше не горевать, я подарю его кому-нибудь другому.
Если вы хотите преодолеть языковой барьер и начать свободно общаться с иностранцами, записывайтесь на разговорный курс английского.
Надеемся, эта статья была вам полезной и вы разобрались, как строить предложения в английском языке. Предлагаем пройти небольшой тест для закрепления темы.
Тест по теме «Порядок слов в английском предложении, часть 1»
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Hello lovely students! When it comes to speaking and writing sentences in the English language, some people need help. Do you?
If you do, don’t worry. There is no shame in it. And if you’d like to know more, why not read the article below? You’ll learn a lot about how to form sentences similarly to English speakers and the common word order.
Are you ready?
What is the dominant word order in English?
That would be the subject verb object order or the SVO word order, as it is more commonly known. We’re strict about using it for short sentences in English, and it is used in main clauses and subordinate clauses. Think of it like our natural word order. Look at this example.
Jenny eats cake.
Jenny is the subject, eats is the main verb, and cake is the object.
If our word order were changed to subject object verb (also known as the SOV order), the above examples sentence would be:
Jenny cake eats.
It doesn’t sound correct to English speakers, though this word order is used in many other languages around the world, such as in Korean (but more on other languages later).
An excellent way to know the difference between these two common word orders is to look at the definitions of subject, verbs and objects below. This will help you out even more.
Did you spot how the subject’s position is the same in the SVO and SOV word order?
1) Subject
If you look at the example sentences, in both the SVO word order and the SOV word order, you’ll see that the subject, Jenny, starts both. This shouldn’t be a surprise—subjects are essential in English.
In the Oxford Dictionary, subjects are nouns, noun phrases, or pronouns representing the person or thing that acts on the verb.
The subject can be people, animals or things. I, you, he, she, it, they and we are all examples of subject pronouns that are commonly used.
For example, They ran a marathon.
Here, they is the subject.
2) Verb
Verbs are different from subjects in that they express an action or state, such as sleep and believe, respectively.
There are many different types of verbs. In English grammar, we have auxiliary verbs, stative verbs, action verbs, transitive/intransitive verbs, irregular/regular verbs etc. The list goes on.
In the sentence, she reads a book, reads is the verb as it expresses an action.
3) Object
Objects are pronouns, nouns or noun phrases which are affected by the verb’s action (a direct object) or that the action is done to (an indirect object). Objects usually refer to a person, animal or thing.
The object pronouns in English are me, you, him, her, it, them and us.
Phillipa and Stefania are drawing a portrait.
Here, portrait is affected by the verb done by the subjects (Phillipa and Stefania).
Extra note: it might be worth me mentioning objects aren’t always needed in a sentence, but subjects and verbs are.
For more information on indirect and direct objects, read this article.
Subject verb object examples in the tenses.
The SVO order is used in every tense, making it easier to remember. Let’s take a look at the present simple, past simple and future simple tenses.
1) Present tense
May designs cars.
Axel attends university.
Santa Claus feeds Rudolph.
2) Past tense
Petra stroked the dog.
Quinn ate her chocolate.
Harriet practised the violin.
3) Future tense
The teacher will read a story.
Samuele will sign a book.
Oscar will hate the suit.
This same general sentence structure applies to the perfect and continuous tenses too.
The exception to the rule
English is full of exceptions, and there is one here too. In this case, it is with passives.
Most sentences in the English language are either in active or passive voice. Active voice sentences usually follow the SVO order. Passive voice sentences don’t.
This is because the passive is more focused on the object than the subject in English. The object takes the subject’s place.
The structure is: object as subject + the verb to be + past participle.
If we take the first example sentence, Jenny eats cake, we would change it to the cake is eaten by Jenny in the passive voice.
Now that I’ve clarified that, shall we look at sentence structures in other languages?
Other sentence structures around the world
There are six known basic sentence structures.
1) SVO word order – cats drink milk
This word order is used in English, Italian, German, French, Dutch, Malay, Chinese, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Thai and Vietnamese.
2) SOV word order – cats milk drink
This word order is used in Hindi, Japanese, Latin, Korean, Tamil, Turkish etc.
3) Verb subject object word order (VSO) – drink cats milk
This word order is used in Irish, Welsh, Filippino, Maori etc.
4) Verb object subject word order (VOS) – drink milk cats
This word order is used in Car, Fijian, Malagasy, Q’eqchi’ and Terena.
5) Object verb subject word order (OVS) – milk drink cats
This word order is used in Hixkaryana and Urarina.
6) Object subject verb word order (OSV) – milk cats drink
This word order is used in Tobati and Warao.
Is that everything?
Absolutely not! For more engaging English content, head to my YouTube channel English with Lucy.
When creating sentences, different languages follow particular word orders. This refers to the order of the subject, verb, and object in a sentence. The six main word orders (from most to least common) are as follows:
- SOV — subject, object, verb
- SVO — subject, verb, object
- VSO — verb, subject, object
- VOS — verb, object, subject
- OVS — object, verb, subject
- OSV — object, subject, verb
The focus of this article is the second most commonly used word order, which is subject, verb, object. This is often shortened to SVO. We’ll be taking a look at the definition and grammar of subject, verb, object, along with some examples and the languages that use it as their dominant word order (including the English language!)
Subject Verb Object Definition
Check out the definition of subject verb object below:
Subject verb object is one of six main word orders across all languages.
In sentences that follow the subject verb object structure, the subject comes first. This is then followed by the verb and, lastly, the object.
Subject Verb Object Grammar
Before taking a look at some examples, it is important to focus on grammar and understand the purpose of the subject, verb, and object in a sentence. Let’s take a look at each element in more detail:
Subject
The subject in a sentence refers to the person or thing carrying out an action. For example:
«We watched a scary movie.»
In this sentence, the subject is «we.»
Verb
The main verb in a sentence is the action itself. You may have heard it being referred to as a «doing word» in school; that is essentially its purpose! For example:
«She writes a book.»
In this sentence, the verb is «writes.»
Object
The object in a sentence refers to the person or thing that receives the action of the verb. For example:
«James and Mark are painting a picture.»
In this sentence, the object is «a picture.»
It is worth noting that an object is not always needed in a sentence for it to make grammatical sense. The subject and verb, however, are necessary to create a meaningful sentence. For example:
«James and Mark are painting.»
This sentence does not include an object, but still makes grammatical sense.
If the sentence did not have either the subject or the main verb, it would not make sense. For example:
No subject: «are painting.» Who are painting?
No main verb: «James and Mark are.» James and Mark are doing what?
Fig. 1 — The object in a sentence is not always needed, but the subject and verb are.
English Subject Verb Object
The English language uses subject verb object as the natural word order. A natural word order (also known as an unmarked word order) refers to the dominant, basic word order a language uses without having to change or add anything for emphasis. In English, the word order is fairly strict, meaning most sentences follow the same SVO structure.
However, there are exceptions, which are due to the different grammatical voices we can use to create sentences. Grammatical voice refers to the relationship between the action of a verb and the subject and object.
In English grammar, there are two grammatical voices:
1. Active voice
2. Passive voice
The most commonly used voice is the active voice, which occurs in sentences where the subject actively performs the action. Sentences in the active voice follow the subject-verb object word order. For example:
| Subject | Verb | Object |
| John | built | a treehouse. |
In this example, it is clear that the subject, John, is the person carrying out the action of building.
On the other hand, the passive voice is less commonly used. In sentences that use the passive voice, the subject is being acted upon, and the object assumes the position of the subject. The passive voice does not follow the SVO word order; instead, the structure is as follows:
Subject → Auxiliary verb ‘to be’ → Past participle verb → Prepositional phrase. For example:
«The treehouse was built by John.»
In this sentence, the focus has been shifted from the person/thing carrying out the action to the person/thing affected by the action.
Fig. 2 — The passive voice places focus on the object instead of the subject.
Subject Verb Object Examples
Check out some examples of sentences written in the subject verb object word order below. The SVO word order is used with any tense, so let’s begin by looking at some examples written in the simple past tense:
| Subject | Verb | Object |
| Marie | ate | pasta. |
| I | opened | the box. |
| We | attended | the party. |
| Liam | drank | beer. |
| Grace and Martha | sang | a duet. |
| They | closed | the door. |
| She | cleaned | the floor. |
| He | drove | his car. |
Now here are some examples written in the simple present tense:
| Subject | Verb | Object |
| I | kick | the ball. |
| We | bake | a cake. |
| You | brush | your hair. |
| They | grow | plants. |
| She | holds | the kitten. |
| He | reads | his essay. |
| Polly | decorates | her bedroom. |
| Tom | makes | a smoothie. |
Finally, here are some examples written in the simple future tense:
| Subject | Verb | Object |
| She | will write | a poem. |
| He | will win | the competition. |
| They | will play | the cello. |
| You | will finish | you exams. |
| Katie | will walk | her dog. |
| Sam | will open | the window. |
| We | will pick | flowers. |
| I | will drink | hot chocolate. |
Subject Verb Object Languages
We know that the English language uses subject verb object as the natural word order, but what about the other languages that use it too? It is the second most common word order, after all!
Below is a list of languages that use SVO as their natural word order:
- Chinese
- English
- French
- Hausa
- Italian
- Malay
- Portuguese
- Spanish
- Thai
- Vietnamese
Some languages are more flexible in terms of word order, so don’t stick to just one «natural» order. For example, Finnish, Hungarian, Ukranian and Russian use both the subject verb object and subject object verb word orders equally.
Below are some example sentences of the SVO word order in different languages, along with the English translations:
| Example sentences | English translation |
| Chinese: 他 踢 足球 | He plays football. |
| Spanish: Hugo come espaguetis. | Hugo eats spaghetti. |
| French: Nous mangeons des pommes. | We eat apples. |
| Italian: Maria beve caffè. | Maria drinks coffee. |
| Hausa: Na rufe kofar. | I closed the door. |
| Portuguese: Ela lavou a roupa. | She washed her clothes. |
Subject Verb Object — Key takeaways
- Subject verb object is one of six main word orders across all languages. It is the second most common word order (behind subject object verb).
- In sentences that follow the subject verb object structure, the subject comes first. This is then followed by the verb and, lastly, the object.
- The subject and verb are needed to create a meaningful sentence, but the object is not always necessary.
- The English language uses subject verb object as the natural (dominant) word order.
- In English, sentences in the active voice use the subject object verb word order. Sentences in the passive voice do not.
Different languages across the world follow certain word orders when creating sentences. There are six main word orders in all languages:
- SOV — subject, object, verb
- SVO — subject, verb, object
- VSO — verb, subject, object
- VOS — verb, object, subject
- OVS — object, verb, subject
- OSV — object, subject, verb
The focus of this article — and the most uncommon word order across all languages — is: Object Subject Verb.
Let’s take a look in more detail!
Object Subject Verb Structure
Before we take a look at the object-subject-verb structure, here’s a quick reminder of the elements of a sentence:
-
Subject = a person or thing that carries out an action, e.g., «Lauren read a book.»
-
Verb = the action, e.g., «Lauren read a book.»
-
Object = a person or thing that receives the action of the verb, e.g., «Lauren read a book.»
In sentences that follow the object-subject-verb structure, the object comes first. This is then followed by the subject and, lastly, the verb. For example, instead of saying, «Greg ate pizza,» you would say, «Pizza Greg ate.» To native English speakers, this may seem quite unusual, as we typically follow the subject-verb-object structure instead!
Object Subject Verb Languages
You may be wondering, which languages use the object-subject-verb structure?
Very few languages use object-subject-verb as their natural word order. A natural word order (also known as an unmarked word order) refers to the dominant, basic word order we use without having to add or change anything for emphasis. In English, the natural word order is subject-verb-object.
The languages that do use the object-subject-verb order naturally include:
-
Xavante
-
Jamamadi
-
Apurinã
-
Warao
-
Urubú-Kapoor
-
Jupda
-
Kayabí
-
Nadëb
-
Mizo and other Kuki-Chin-Mizo Languages
We will be looking at some of these in more detail later on!
So what about the other languages that use object-subject-verb?
The languages that do not use object-subject-verb as their natural word order tend to only use it when they need to add emphasis to a certain part of the sentence (usually the object, but sometimes the subject). This is known as a marked word order, as it differs from the natural word order. Such languages include:
-
Chinese
-
Korean
-
Japanese
-
Portuguese
-
Hungarian
-
Finnish
-
Hebrew
-
Arabic
-
Turkish
-
Malayalam
-
Nahuatl
As object-subject-verb is only used in marked sentences by the above languages, this means the natural word order will be something different.
Object Subject Verb Examples
Let’s first take a look at a couple of examples from languages that use object-subject-verb as their natural (unmarked) sentence structure:
Natural/Unmarked Word Order
The object-subject-verb word order is rarely used as a natural/unmarked word order. Here are just a few examples:
Apurinã
Apurinã is an Indigenous language spoken by the Apurinã people of the Amazon basin (South America). As of 2006, there were around 2800 native speakers of Apurinã.
Take the following sentence:
Apurinã: «ι-wako n-aroka.»
English translation: «His hand I wash.»
In English, we would typically write this as «I wash his hand.»
Another Apurinã example is:
Apurinã: «anana nota apa.»
English translation: «Pineapple I fetch.»
In English, we would write this as «I fetch (a/the) pineapple.»
Urubú-Kaapor
Urubú-Kaapor is a language belonging to the Tupí language family, spoken by the Ka’apor people of Brazil. As of 2006, there were around 600 native speakers.
Urubú-Kaapor: «pako xua u’ u.»
English translation: «Bananas John (he) ate.»
In English, we would write this as «John ate bananas.»
Nadëb
Nadëb is a Nadahup language (specifically the Macuan sub-family) spoken in the Brazilian Amazon. As of 2011, there were around 370 native speakers.
Nadëb: «samuuy yi qa-wùh.»
English translation: «Howler-monkey people eat.»
In English, we would write this as «People eat howler monkeys.»
Xavante
Xavante is a Macro-Gê language spoken by the Xavante people in the surrounding areas of Eastern Mato Grosso (Brazil). As of 2006, there were around 9600 native speakers.
Xavante: «aro te tsub- dza’ra.»
English translation: «Rice they winnow.»
In English, we would write this as «They are winnowing rice.»
Fig. 1 — Most languages that use object-subject-verb as their natural word order are spoken in or around Brazil.
Marked Word Order
Now let’s take a look at some languages that use object-subject-verb as a marked word order:
Finnish
The Finnish word order is very lenient, and object-subject-verb is often used to emphasize the object in a sentence. Take the following sentence:
«Sinuan minä tarvitsen.»
English translation: «you I need.»
Here, as the object «you» is placed at the beginning of the sentence, this adds emphasis to whoever «you» is referring to. This implies that the subject («I») needs a specific person («you») instead of someone else.
Another example is:
«Oranssin minä syön.»
English translation: «Orange I eat.»
This example emphasizes that the orange is being eaten; it does not necessarily matter who is doing the eating.
Korean
The typical word order of Korean is subject-object-verb. In some cases, however, object-subject-verb is used. It is important to know that, as well as subjects and objects, Korean also has «topics.» The topic of a sentence is the main focus of the sentence and can refer to either the subject or the object. To differentiate between subject, object, and topic, each one uses different particles (also known as markers) at the end of the word:
Subject: 이 / 가
Object: 을 / 를
Topic: 은 / 는
When an object is the topic of a sentence, it is placed at the beginning. When this happens, the object-subject-verb structure is followed. For example:
그 가방은 제가 좋아해요
English translation: «The bag, I like.»
Or more specifically, «(As for) the bag, I like (it).»
Japanese
Following on from Korean, Japanese is almost exactly the same:
Japanese: «そのりんごは私が食べました。»
English translation: «The apple, I eat.»
More specifically: «(As for) the apple, I eat (it).»
Hungarian
Unlike the previous examples, Hungarian uses object-subject-verb to add emphasis to the subject of the sentence. For example:
Hungarian: «A virágokat Kristof szereti.»
English translation: «Flowers Kristof likes.»
Meaning: Kristof likes flowers, not anyone else.
Turkish
Turkish also uses object-subject-verb to emphasize the subject. For example:
Turkish: «Yemeği ben pişirdim.»
English translation: «The food I cooked.»
Meaning: I cooked the food, not anybody else.
Subject Verb Object English
Let’s move away from Object- Subject- Verb now and take a look at the typical word order of English, which is:
Subject Verb Object
For example:
| Subject | Verb | Object |
| Sophie | writes | a poem. |
Subject-verb-object is the second most common word order across all languages — the first being subject-object-verb, which is used in languages like Korean, German, and French.
Subject Verb Object Sentences
What would subject-verb-object sentences look like if they followed the object-subject-verb word order instead?
Take a look at some examples of English sentences, first written in the typical subject-verb-object word order and then in the object-subject-verb order:
| Subject-verb-object | Object-subject-verb |
| Harry painted the fence. | The fence Harry painted. |
| I watched a movie. | A movie I watched. |
| They walk the dogs. | The dogs they walk. |
| I want to eat some chocolate. | Some chocolate I want to eat. |
| She tied her shoelaces. | Her shoelaces she tied. |
| I opened the cupboard. | The cupboard I opened. |
| He is a doctor | A doctor he is. |
| We danced with our friends. | Our friends we danced with. |
And finally…
What better way to end an article than give a quote from an iconic movie character, Yoda from Star Wars:
«The greatest teacher, failure is.»
Do you notice anything about this quote? It uses the object-subject-verb structure!
| Object | Subject | Verb |
| The greatest teacher | failure | is. |
Fig. 2 — Yoda speaks in a very unique way, using a range of sentence structures.
Object Subject Verb — Key takeaways
- In sentences that follow the object-subject-verb structure, the object comes first. This is then followed by the subject and, lastly, the verb.
- The object-subject-verb word order is the most uncommon word order in the world.
- Very few languages use object-subject-verb as a natural (unmarked) word order. Most of the languages that do are spoken in or around Brazil.
- The languages that use object-subject-verb as a marked word order tend to do so when adding emphasis to a certain part of the sentence (usually the object, sometimes the subject).
- The English language uses subject-verb-object as its unmarked word order. It is the second most common word order in the world.