The importance of word order

English is a strange language. A case in point can be made with these two similar sentences:

Could you please let me know where I can find the book?                                                                  Please let me know where I can find the book.

Try explaining to someone who is not a native speaker the difference between the two written sentences above. The difference is not that one is a question and the other is a statement, because they are both asking for the same thing. The difference is the tone. And that difference in English composition is often embedded in word order, the way the words are arranged in the sentence.

Word order in English is important, because it can change the spirit, meaning or fluency of a sentence. Basically, it’s considered an SVO language, like such Romance languages as Spanish, French, Italian and Romanian, meaning that generally sentences follow the Subject-Verb-Object pattern. But it’s more complicated than that when subtleties need to be expressed or when descriptions need to be detailed.

Regarding spirit or tone: the first sentence in our example, worded as a question, could easily be interpreted by someone reading it in an email, for example, as being asked with irritation. Same with this example, “Can you please amend the deadline?” It sounds like the person asking the question is stressed and really needs for the deadline to be changed. But that’s not the case with the statement, “Please amend the deadline.” No irritation is transmitted by this wording. Placing “Please” at the beginning of the sentence makes all the difference in terms of tone and comprehension.

Now consider the following two sentences:

He genuinely needs to do that.                                                                                                                He needs to do that genuinely.

They use the same words, but they differ in meaning. The first signifies that the person really needs to do something, while the second means that the person must do something honestly or with sincerity. The word order is important here not to convey feeling or tone, but to impart a particular sense or interpretation.

Another consideration regarding the order of words concerns fluency or accuracy. The placing of adjectives is particularly problematic in English for those learning the language. Native speakers learn the order as if by osmosis, and many don’t even realize there is a particular sequence. They just know where the words need to go depending on what they want to communicate.

Perhaps this list will help students of English place adjectives in the correct order. Found on the internet, this information was posted by a teacher at a school in California, USA back in 2009:

The proper order of adjectives is listed below along with some examples for each category.
1. Determiners – a, an, the, my, your, several, etc.
2. Observations – lovely, boring, stimulating, etc.
3. Size – tiny, small, huge, etc.
4. Shape – round, square, rectangular, etc.
5. Age – old, new, ancient, etc.
6. Color – red, blue, green, etc.
7. Origin – British, American, Mexican, etc.
8. Material – gold, copper, silk, etc.
9. Qualifier – limiters for compound nouns.

Here are some examples (by Thomas Williams, teacher at EC San Diego English School):
“The interesting, small, rectangular, blue car is parked in my space.”
“I bought a beautiful, long, red, Italian, silk tie.”
“My father lives in a lovely, gigantic, ancient, brick house.”
“I have an annoying, small, circular, American, tin, alarm clock that wakes me up.”
“Let’s order a delicious, huge, rectangular, pepperoni pizza.”
“We all love our smart, petite, British teacher.”
“They all received several dazzling, small, ancient, gold coins.”
“She owns a stunning, large, old, brown dog named Boris.”

The following chart is also helpful. If you have trouble learning it by heart, then keep it handy!

Also on the point of accuracy or fluency, written as well as spoken English uses many compound verbs, which are multi-word groups that act as a single verb. Examples include to “give up” (to “abandon”; “cease making an effort; admit defeat”) or to “give for” (to “offer”) and to “look up” (to “search”; “improve”). The separate words making up the verb must be placed in the sentence correctly. It’s accurate to write, for instance, “I gave her a sweater for her birthday”, but not, “I gave her for her birthday a sweater”. Another fluent sentence is, “I looked the word up in the dictionary”, and not “I looked up the word in the dictionary”, although the latter is often used.

Idioms, those word groups that have particular meaning not deducible from the individual words, also have a particular word order in English. Take, for example, this one: “to check at the door”, which means “to get rid of before entering someplace”. Correct usage is “to check something at the door”, such as, “to check your attitude at the door”. It would not be correct to write, “She checked at the door her attitude.”

The order of wording of compound verbs and idioms ties back to the usual Subject-Verb-Object construction of the English tongue, with added complexity. The object in the last sample sentence is the something, i.e. the “attitude”, so it has a specific place in the phrase. And where is that? Referring back to our examples above, a simple way to remember what’s proper is to substitute the word “it” for the thing/object. So: “she checked it at the door”, not “she checked at the door it”; “to give it for a birthday”, not “to give for a birthday it”; and “to look it up”, not “to look up it”.

But English, as all languages, changes with time. Few stop to think about the proper placement of words in a sentence when they write, although doing so would improve clarity and ensure the right message is getting across. With lackadaisical use over time, however, the nuances of meaning may decline and with them precision as well as full knowledge and understanding.

English is one of the many languages following a simple sentence structure. Usually, a subject is placed before a verb, while an object follows a verb. Such a structure is required if a sentence contains all of the mentioned elements. Even though this principle seems clear, there are many exceptions concerning word arrangement. Besides, compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences can include more key components making a structure more complicated.

If the word order is changed, it can be hard to understand the meaning of a sentence. A proper structure creates a logical chain explaining the idea of a phrase. That’s why an understanding of fundamental word order rules is crucial to express thoughts clearly.

Basic Word Order

Sentences consist of clauses, including a subject and a predicate. A subject presents the central component of a phrase, while a predicate describes the action. A noun and a verb are the main elements of these two parts of a clause. Naturally, a subject includes not only a noun but also an adjective or any other word connected with it. For example:

• ✔️ A big cat…
• ✔️ A clever boy…

A predicate consists of a verb and all the referring words:

• ✔️ …caught a mouse.
• ✔️ …tells a story.

After uniting the examples above, we’ll get two simple sentences following a common sentence structure:

Subject + Verb + Object

• ✔️ A big cat caught a mouse
• ✔️ A clever boy tells a story
• ✔️ He reads a book
• ✔️ Jill listens to music

However, there are many exceptions in English. For example, word order is changed in questions, while a simple sentence can contain only a subject and a verb. These rules should be taken into account.

Inverting Word Order in Questions

The way words are arranged are changed in questions. An auxiliary verb starts a phrase, while a subject is placed after it. A verb and an object will follow a subject just like in a simple sentence:

Linking Verbs

Linking verbs are like bridges connecting a subject with the information explaining its quality. They don’t reflect any action – these verbs just connect nouns with the rest of a phrase. Traditionally, linking verbs are the words am, are, is, was, were, been, and being. Information that goes after a linking verb is called a predicate adjective or subject complement. Here are few examples of such sentences:

Subject + linking verb + predicate adjective

• ✔️ He is handsome
• ✔️ The dog was hungry
• ✔️ Her fingers are thin

Transitive and Intransitive Verbs

A transitive verb identifies the action taken by a subject towards an object. In this case, an object is called “direct.” Transitive verbs make sentences based on a “subject+verb+object” formula complete and meaningful. The direct object can’t be missing because a phrase won’t make any sense:

❌ Mona took.

It remains unknown what exactly Mona took.

✔️ Mona took a purse.

Intransitive verbs are independent verbs that don’t require adding an object after them. They are connected only with a subject. Intransitive verbs help create simple sentences containing only two words:

Subject + Intransitive verb

• ✔️ Lisa agrees
• ✔️ Jack lies

Indirect Object

A sentence provides more information if a transitive verb is followed by both an indirect and direct object. Whenever it’s necessary to specify the recipient of the action taken by a subject, a direct object is placed after an indirect object. Here are the examples showing the key elements of such sentences in detail:

Subject + Verb + Indirect Object + Direct Object

• ✔️ The young man sent his girlfriend a long letter
• ✔️ Billy bought Annie a beautiful bouquet

The word order in those sentences can be also changed. But it’s necessary to place a preposition “to” or “for” before an indirect object. Basically, it is the way how the prepositional phrase is created. An indirect object will follow a direct object:

Subject + Verb + Direct Object + Indirect Object

• ✔️ The young man sent a long letter to his girlfriend
• ✔️ Billy bought a beautiful bouquet for Annie
• ✔️ He gave wise advice to his best friend

Adverbials and Adjectives

A sentence including adverbials or adjectives requires special attention because these words can be placed almost anywhere. There are specific rules for using these components in a phrase. Usually, adverbials are placed before verbs, closer to subjects:

✔️ She seldom comes to their house.

However, an adverb can follow a verb in order to modify it:

✔️ Lisa answered immediately his question.

Adverbials of time can take a position both at the beginning and at the end of a sentence. If an adverb ends a phrase, it just specifies the fact, while the information about time isn’t the most important element. An adverb at the beginning of a sentence emphasizes when exactly something happened. Here are a few examples:

• ✔️ Today, Milly will perform at the conference.
• ✔️ Milly will perform at the conference today.

An adjective is another word that can be placed in different parts of a phrase. In simple sentences, they appear after the forms of the verb “to be” or before a noun:

• ✔️ He is tall.
• ✔️ They are tired.
• ✔️ He has a big house.
• ✔️ The black dog is sleeping.

Importance of Word Order Rules

Word order rules help make communication and writing clear. If one of the key components is missing or the word arrangement is changed incorrectly, a sentence won’t make any sense. Learning fundamental rules are crucial as they are the background for structuring larger sentences providing more information about a subject.

5 most important basic rules of word order in English

Everyone knows how much important is the order of words in English. It can be hard to describe it, but experts of our paper writing service will try to do it in several simple rules presented in this essay on the order of words in English. What kind of rules are these? Let’s see. It is necessary to know the language order of words because it helps to build and understand the simplest and the most complex sentence in English. This seemingly simple but extremely important issue is the starting point in the study of English grammar.

1. Subject + predicate + direct object

In an ordinary affirmative sentence, the subject is placed directly before a word that defines its action, so-called predicate or verb. Direct object, if in general an object is present in a sentence, follows the verb directly, i.e. it is placed rights after it. For example: “They bought a car”; “We can not do that”; “The girl in a blue dress was watching TV” and so on.

2. Predicate

Notice that a notion “subject” here implies not only the main noun or pronoun, but also adjectives and entire descriptive phrases, which have relation to the subject. The rest unity of sentence members is called “predicate”, since it does not have relation to the subject. For example: “The girl in a blue dress was playing the piano” – the part “The girl in a blue dress” is subject and “was playing the piano” is predicate. Visit our essay corrector service and contact our team if you need more information or any other kind of help or assistance on this issue.

3. Indirect object

If there are any other elements in a sentence, such as indirect objects or adverbials, then they usually take strictly defined position.

Indirect object position. Indirect object is placed after direct object if it contains preposition “to”. Indirect object is placed before direct object if preposition “to” misses. For example: “The teacher gave dictionaries to the pupils”, but “The teacher gave them dictionaries”.

4. Adverbial position

An adverbial may have three positions:

1) before subject (usually this is adverbial of time). For example: “In the morning he was reading a book”;

2) after object (here almost any adverb can be placed or adverbial phrase). For example: “He was reading a book at the library”;

3) between auxiliary and main verb. For example: “He has already read this book”.

5. Irregular word order in the English

Usually in regular English there are no other words between subject and its verb (predicate) or verb and its object. Of course, some exceptions exist, and we will consider the most important of them:

a) Use of objects (indirect) without “to” and use of adverbs (usually of frequency). For example: “I sometimes drink coffee in the morning”, “She showed the policeman her driving license”. All you need is to follow the simple rules presented above and you will manage to avoid word order mistakes in an English sentence. The examples given here are purposely very simple. However, the same rules can be applied to more complicated sentences with subordinate structures. For example: “The woman, (who often felt lonely), never left her house before (she had locked all the doors)”.

b) Stylistic change of word order. Of course, each rule has its exception (and sometimes a lot of them), and many people, especially writers and speakers, often use irregular word order to achieve special effect. But if now we focus attention on the exceptions, we will be distracted from the basic principles and consequently the order of words problem may seem to much complicated.

That is why here are some other examples. You should know that suchlike sentences exist, but use them only when you feel you can not avoid it, i.e. if it is inevitably and absolutely necessary, and especially try not to use them before you learn the principles of ordinary word order. Remember that it is necessary to learn to work first and only then to run. For example: “Never before had he felt so miserable”. If a sentence begins with “never” or “never before” the subject and predicate often undergo inversion, i.e. they have changed their positions. But do not use inversion in the sentences, in which when the subject is followed by “never”.

Another example: “Hardly had I finished cleaning the house, my friend called”. Subject and predicated must be always inverted if “hardly” is placed in a sentence beginning.

Inversion is also used in the structures of hypothetical condition when “if” is missed. For example: “Had they know, they would never have done that”.

In a sentence “Whatever you can tell me, I know already” the complex object “Whatever you can tell me” is placed in the beginning of the sentence for artistic reasons. Such a structure of a sentence is not obligatory; we are just talking about a way of a thought expression or a stylistic device.

Now having learnt the rules for simple sentences constructing you may proceed to more complex sentences that contain subordinate structures. By the way, if there are some doubts or you are not sure about your knowledge of grammar, you may use our online essay editor website; our professional writers, editors and other experts are always there to help you.

Word order in English: tips for the grammar knowledge improvement

1. As we have already said word order in English has a great importance. There are no cases in English (except the genitive or possessive case that defines belonging to a subject or a person) or their forms are very similar. So due to this fact it is very important to keep the word order. It is not difficult and even quite easy:

• subject is put first
• verb (predicate) follows the subject
• object (direct or indirect) is on the third place.

Sometimes if position of words is changed, then the whole meaning of a sentence may change. For example: “Irene saw Jon” or “Jon saw Irene”.

2. Sometimes a verb is placed on the first place and a subject is on the second. For example: “Did Irene see Jon?”. It means that this is an interrogative sentence. There are also other cases, in which the change of subject and verb places may be possible. The most common among them are the following:

a) “Let us go” – this is imperative mood.

b) “Had he used better means and tools, he would probably have been achieved much better result” – this is a conjunctionless conditional mood.

3. It may seem that this rule is simple, but still usually it can be hard to recognize it. First of all, subject is not always expressed with a noun. It may be expressed with a verb with “to” (infinitive), as in the following sentence, for example: “To be a good person, is to have not only a pure soul, but a clear mind as well”. Or it may be expressed with a whole sentence: “What mother means to us is the essence and sense of our life”.

Second of all, subject can be expressed with not just one word, but it can have a lot of clarifying words and even sentences, which create a subject group. For example: “The man I met yesterday was a magician”. The subject “the man” is extended by a subordinate clause. Before subordinate clause there should be conjunction “which / whom”, but in such short sentences conjunction is usually missed.

4. Very often, despite the rule and breaking it, adverbs and adverbial phrases of place and time are put in the sentence beginning. For example: “In spring nature begins to come back to life again”. There is usually a comma that separates the adverbs from the other parts of a sentence: “As always, she has to stay at home at night”. However, sometimes a comma is missed as a rule in newspapers and blogs: “In the meantime he made four films”. Additionally, they often place introductory words and phrases on the first place: “For the rest, he wanted them to know that if they have any trouble they can always call him and ask for any kind of help”.

All these examples are simple and do not cause difficulties. However, it is too early to sigh with a relief. The British, especially people with literary and scientific inclination, sometimes use their own word order, so that it can be hard to find subject, predicative or other sentence parts: “In spite of what they had told us, and they really believed their words to be an absolute truth, they were not ready to discuss or accept any other mind or opinion, so we did not even try to persuade them”. Such a breaking of regular word order usually happened due to emotional rise of an author.

5. Not only cases, but also parts of speech in English often have similar look and forms. For example, a word “captain” may be a noun, a verb and even other part of speech. Now this is obvious that it is important to look at what place a word in a sentence has. We have already talked about the positions of the main sentence parts, i.e. an object and a predicate. However, there is another interesting rule, and here it is: if after an article there are a lot of words, in this case only the last word in a subject, the rest is adjectives. For example: “I have some recording from the broken last year record player”. However, in a set of different adjectives one adjective may define not a noun but other adjective. Puns and jokes are offer occur because of that: “For the next several days she led a simple and even happy life her big aunt’s house (it means that the house was big, not the aunt)”.

What about objects, the rule is quite simple: direct object goes right after a verb, and then an indirect object follows. For example: “Her aunt bought her a new pretty dress and a necklace”.

So the word order in English gives clear Ariadne’s thread in translating the most complicated texts. However, exceptions and difficulties always remain.

By Barry Willis

Almost all music fans have heard the classic love song “I Only Have Eyes For You.” Its title and refrain both leverage “only” the way it’s typically used in conversational English, even though its placement in the sentence renders a meaning that is probably not what the songwriter intended.

English word order is relatively strict, unlike languages such as Latin or Russian, whose word forms change with function. For clarity in English, adjectives, and adverbs need to be as close as practical to the words they are intended to modify. Assuming that “only” means “alone” or “exclusively,” as written and performed, the line “I only have eyes for you” means literally “I am the only one who thinks you are attractive,” clearly not a winning compliment to a potential mate.

“Only” is among a handful of English words that are regularly misplaced. The actual intent of the song’s title line is “You are all I see,” understood as a pledge of devotion by everyone who sings or hears it. The original lyric works with the song’s meter, but its meaning would be completely unambiguous and grammatically correct with the words rearranged to “I have eyes for only you.” With the same number of syllables as the original, it might work well with the song’s meter too.

Which is the better answer to the question “How much money do you have?”

“I only have twenty” or “I have only twenty.”

The first answer, “I only have twenty,” probably means “Twenty is all I have,” but could also mean “I alone have twenty,” with an implication that other people have more or less than that amount. On the other hand, “I have only twenty” makes a clear statement that twenty is the respondent’s cash limit. Curiously, answering the question with a short phrase such as “only twenty” eliminates any potential misunderstanding.

Another commonly misplaced modifier is “just,” which among many uses can mean “simply,” “merely,” “fair,” “equitable,” and “balanced.” The word is often interchangeable with “only.”

In a May 15 opinion column by Diane Butler Bass about the relationship between white evangelicals and former President Donald Trump, the author wrote: “Donald Trump—no matter his personal failings—embodies their deepest beliefs. He doesn’t just represent their interests. He is them.”

Bass knew what she was writing. “He doesn’t just represent their interests” means that Trump is much more than a promoter of white evangelical culture. There’s an implication that he has a more significant role, which she examines in paragraphs that follow. Had she written “He doesn’t represent just their interests,” the emphasis would shift from Trump’s role as a figurehead to whatever else is on the evangelicals’ agenda, a small but fascinating example of how slight changes in word order can alter intended effects.

Awareness of word order can bring new clarity to your writing, but be careful of being too grammatical with dialogue. Narratives should be precise, but you want your characters to sound natural, even if what they say would make an English teacher cringe.