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SENTENCE ORDER
SEM VI
• MODULE III

• What is the correct word order of an English sentence?

• The basic word order of an English sentence is Subject+ Predicate. The
predicate is the part of the sentence that tells something about the subject.
The predicate always includes the verb.
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• Word order is important: it’s what makes your

sentences make sense! So, proper word order
is an essential part of writing and speaking—
when we put words in the wrong order, the
result is a confusing, unclear, and an
incorrect sentence.
•
• 2.Examples of Word Order
• Here are some examples of words put into the
correct and incorrect order:
• I have 2 brothers and 2 sisters at home. CORRECT
• 2 brothers and 2 sisters have I at home. INCORRECT
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3. Types of Word Order

In English, we follow one main pattern for normal sentences and one main pattern for
sentences that ask a question.

Standard Word Order

A sentence’s standard word order is Subject + Verb + Object (SVO). Remember, the subject
is what a sentence is about; so, it comes first. For example:

The dog (subject) + eats (verb) + popcorn (object).

The subject comes first in a sentence because it makes our meaning clear when writing
and speaking. Then, the verb comes after the subject, and the object comes after the verb;
and that’s the most common word order. Otherwise, a sentence doesn’t make sense, like
this:

Eats popcorn the dog. (verb + object + subject)

Popcorn the dog eats. (object + subject + verb)

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Subject-Verb-Object: Sentence Patterns

English belongs to a group of just under half the world’s languages which
follows a SUBJECT – VERB – OBJECT order. This is the starting point for all
our basic clauses (groups of words that form a complete grammatical idea). A
standard declarative clause should include, in this order:

Subject – who or what is doing the action (or has a condition demonstrated, for
state verbs), e.g. a man, the church, two beagles
Verb – what is done or what condition is discussed, e.g. to do, to talk, to be, to
feel
Additional information – everything else!
In the correct order, a subject and verb can communicate ideas with immediate
sense with as little as two or three words
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• Alternative Sentence Patterns: Different Sentence Types

• Subject-Verb-Object is a starting point that covers positive, declarative sentences.
These are the most common clauses in English, used to describe factual
events/conditions. The type of verb can also make a difference to these patterns, as
we have action/doing verbs (for activities/events) and linking/being verbs (for
conditions/states/feelings).

• Here’s the basic patterns we’ve already looked at:

• Subject + Action Verb – Gemma studies.

• Subject + Action Verb + Object – Gemma studies English.
• Subject + Action Verb + Indirect Object + Direct Object – Gemma gave Paul a book.
• We might also complete a sentence with an adverb, instead of an object:

• Subject + Action Verb + Adverb – Gemma studies hard.

• When we use linking verbs for states, senses, conditions, and other occurrences, the
verb is followed by noun or adjective phrases which define the subject.

• Subject + Linking Verb + Noun Phrase – Gemma is a student.

• Subject + Linking Verb + Adjective Phrase – Gemma is very wise.
• Parts of Speech
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• General patterns offer overall structures for English sentences, while the broad
grammatical units are formed of individual words and phrases. In English, we
define different word types as parts of speech.

• Nouns – naming words that define someone or something, e.g. car, woman, cat
• Pronouns – words we use in place of nouns, e.g. he, she, it
• Verbs – doing or being words, describing an action, state or experience e.g. run,
talk, be
• Adjectives – words that describe nouns or pronouns, e.g. cheerful, smelly, loud
• Adverbs – words that describe verbs, adjectives, other adverbs, sentences
themselves – anything other nouns and pronouns, basically, e.g. quickly,
curiously, weirdly
• Determiners – words that tell us about a noun’s quantity or if it’s specific, e.g. a,
the, many
• Prepositions – words that show noun or noun phrase positions and
relationships, e.g. above, behind, in, on
• Conjunctions – words that connect words, phrases or clauses e.g. and, but
• Interjections – words that express a single emotion, e.g. Hey! Ah! Oof!
• For more articles and exercises on all of these, be sure to also check out ELB’s
archive covering parts of speech.
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• Verbs
• Verb phrases should directly follow the subject, so in terms of parts of speech a verb should follow
a noun phrase, without connecting words.

• As with nouns and noun phrases, multiple words may make up the verb component. Verb phrases
depend on your tenses, which follow particular forms – e.g. simple, continuous, perfect and perfect
continuous. The specifics of verb phrases are covered elsewhere, for example the full verb forms
for the tenses are available in The English Tenses Practical Grammar Guide. But in terms of
structure, with standard, declarative clauses the ordering of verb phrases should not change from
their typical tense forms. Other parts of speech do not interrupt verb phrases, except for adverbs.

• The times that verb phrases do change their structure are for Questions and Negatives.

• With Yes/No Questions, the first verb of a verb phrase comes before the subject.

• Neil is running. –> Is Neil running?

• This requires an auxiliary verb – a verb that creates a grammatical function. Many tenses already
have an auxiliary verb – to be in continuous tenses (“is running”), or to have in perfect tenses (have
done). For these, to make a question we move that auxiliary in front of the subject. With the past
and present simple tenses, for questions, we add do or did, and put that before the subject.

• Neil ran. –> Did Neil run?

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• We can also have questions that use question words, asking for information (who,
what, when, where, why, which, how), which can include noun phrases. For these, the
question word and any noun phrases it includes comes before the verb.

• Where did Neil Run?

• At what time of day did Neil Run?
• To form negative statements, we add not after the first verb, if there is already an
auxiliary, or if there is not auxiliary we add do not or did not first.

• Neil is running. –> Neil is not

• Neil ran. Neil did not
• The not stays behind the subject with negative questions, unless we use contractions,
where not is combined with the verb and shares its position.

• Is Neil not running?

• Did Neil not run?
• Didn’t Neil run?
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• There are many different types of adverbs, with different purposes, which are usually
broken down into degree, manner, frequency, place and time (and sometimes a few
others). They may be single words or phrases. Adverbs and adverb phrases can be
found either at the start of a clause, the end of a clause, or in a middle position, either
directly before or after the word they modify.

• Graciously, Claire accepted the award for best student. (beginning position)
• Claire graciously accepted the award for best student. (middle position)
• Claire accepted the award for best student graciously. (end position)
• Not all adverbs can go in all positions. This depends on which type they are, or
specific adverb rules. One general tip, however, is that time, as with the general
sentence patterns, should usually come last in a clause, or at the very front if moved
for emphasis.

• With verb phrases, adverbs often either follow the whole phrase or come before or
after the first verb in a phrase (there are regional variations here).

• For multiple adverbs, there can be a hierarchy in a similar way to adjectives, but you
shouldn’t often use many adverbs together.
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• Prepositions are words that, generally, demonstrate relationships between

noun phrases (e.g. by, on, above). They mostly come before a noun phrase,
hence the name pre-position, and tend to stick with the noun phrase they
describe, so move with the phrase.

• They found him [in the cupboard].

• [In the cupboard,] they found him.
• In standard sentence structure, prepositional phrases often follow verbs or
other noun phrases, but they may also be used for defining information
within a noun phrases itself:

• [The dog in sunglasses] is drinking water .