Word order

This page is an overview of the topic of word order in English. The intention is not to teach word order. Rather, it is an introduction to how parts of a sentence can be categorized and arranged.

Introduction

Sentences and finite clauses can be subdivided as follows:

  • Individual words
  • Phrases
  • Clauses
  • Constituents

These four sentence elements combine in various common and predictable ways to make up grammatical structures in English. The rest of the article will focus on these structures and list examples of ungrammatical combinations of sentence elements.

Individual words

Individual words are usually classified by their parts of speech (also called word classes), namely: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions, determiners, prepositions and interjections†. All of these can be sub-categorized in various ways. For example, transitive and intransitive verbs, common and proper nouns, coordinating and subordinating conjunctions.

There are a few predictable patterns of individual word order in respect of some of the parts of speech. For example. most adjectives precede the nouns that they modify. Determiners precede nouns and adjectives.

There are also various word order 'prohibitions'. For example, prepositions cannot be followed by adverbs and neither can adjectives.

†The parts of speech list above is just one way that individual words are classified. Here, as is common in many areas of grammatical analysis, there is no consensus on how many parts of speech there are, what they should be called, and which words should be included in them.

For example, some grammarians call words such as here and now adverbs, while others call them intransitive prepositions.

Phrases

Phrases are groups of individual words that form a unit and have a meaning. So, for example, in the sentence A dog ran into the classroom yesterday morning there are four phrases: 1. a dog, 2. ran†, 3. into the classroom, 4. yesterday morning.

The group of words a dog ran can be considered a unit and it is indeed meaningful. Conversely, the classroom yesterday is not a meaningful unit. Note that groups of words containing both a subject and a verb are generally called clauses, not phrases.

Phrases have certain predictable internal word orders as well a few predictable positions within the sentence. For example, a prepositional phrase starts with the preposition and is completed by a noun phrase. Prepositional phrases most often appear at the end of the sentence and are generally prohibited between the subject and the verb or the verb and its object.

†Modern grammarians classify single words as phrases. So, ran is a verb phrase. And water is a noun phrase. Indeed, for some modern grammarians personal pronouns such as he or they are also noun phrases.

Clauses

Clauses are traditionally defined† as groups of words with a subject and a predicate (consisting of a finite verb). There are main or independent clauses, which can 'stand alone' as a meaninful unit. And dependent or subordinate clauses. which cannot.

Basically, clauses of both types can be strung together in any order, although it is more common for dependent clauses to follow independent clauses.

†Modern grammarians have extended the definition of clause to include groups of words with a non-finite verb form but without an explicit subject. Such non-finite clauses can appear in various positions and perform various functions in a sentence.

Modern grammarians have also added the concepts of the matrix clause and the embedded clause.

Constituents

Constituents are the items or units in a sentence that perform a function. The five primary constituents are the Subject, Verb†, Complement, Object and Adjunct†.

The constituents are found in seven default or canonical orders in a sentence. The Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language (page 721) lists the seven default orders as follows: SV, SVO, SVC, SVOO, SVA, SVOA, SVOC. (See this page for examples of each of these structures.)

There are of course more complex word orders, particularly those that have the addition of one or more adjuncts in different positions. For example, ASAVOAA as in Every Monday she usually plays tennis in the park with her daughter.

But the positions of the other four constituents (namely the Subject, Verb, Complement, and Object) are fairly fixed in English. For example, it is ungrammatical to place the complement between the subject and the verb: *She a teacher is†. And it is ungrammatical to place the direct object before the indirect object as in *He gave a bunch of flowers his mother.

It is important to note that constituents can be one of the other three parts of a sentence listed above: namely, words, phrases and clauses. So, in the following sentence, the whole first dependent clause (Because John ate too much pizza) is an adjunct. And the dependent clause itself contains the single word subject (John) and the object phrase (too much pizza).

  • Because John ate too much pizza, he didn't sleep well that night.

The whole sentence is in the ASVAA constituent order. And each clause has its own constituent order: SVO and SVAA.

†Many modern grammarians prefer the term predicator to verb, since verb is a word class/part of speech and predicator is a function in the same way as subject, object, etc. are functions.

†Adjuncts are called adverbials in many grammatical analyses.

† Placing an asterisk (*) before a sentence is the conventional way of designating that sentence ungrammatical.

Summary

The explanations above make it clear that there are four interconnected and overlapping ways to break sentences down into their different parts. These parts occupy certain fairly fixed or predictable positions in relation to one another, which English learners need to be aware of.

How to check word order

One way for learners to check the word order of the sentences they write is to do a Google search. For example, to check which of the following sentences contains the more common word order: "a. I want to get this right" or "b. I want to get right this".

If you enter the words into Google, the correct choice is clear:

  • I want to get this right: 731 results
  • I want to get right this: 0 results

Similarly:

  • I rarely eat meat: 95,000 results
  • I eat rarely meat: 8 results

Another way to learn about and check word order is to consult a good grammar guide such as Swan's Practical English Usage. Alternatively, ask a native speaker or post a question on one of the English language learning forums.

More resources on this topic

There are also video projects on sentence structures elsewhere on this site. The index pages of these projects have links to interactive quizzes and further information on the topics:

  • Syntax 1: The 'correct' and 'problematic' clause structures of sentences.
  • Syntax 2: The seven canonical constituent structures of clauses and sentences.
  • Syntax 3: Less common clause or sentence structures.

The first of the topics in the list of three above is also covered in the article Understanding sentence types. And the second and third topics on the list are covered in Understanding sentence structures.

Disclaimer

As noted above, grammarians disagree about various aspects of English grammar - particularly its terminology and the classification of the various parts of a sentence.

My experience as an English teacher leads me to believe that the terminology and classifications used in this article are the most helpful and accessible to English language learners.