How to build correctly ordered sentences in English

WORD ORDER in declarative statements

Word order is very important in English; but it is not complicated, and can be reduced to a few basic rules or principles. In the examples below, parts of the sentence are colour-coded: subjects in red, verbs in blue, direct objects in brown, etc. 1.1 In a normal (declarative) sentence, the subject of a sentence comes directly in front of the verb. The direct object (when there is one) comes directly after it: Examples: The man wrote a letter. People who live in glasshouses shouldn't throw stones. The president laughed.

1.2. Note that by the subject, we mean not just a single word, but the subject noun or pronoun plus adjectives or descriptive phrases that go with it. The rest of the sentence i.e. the part that is not the subject - is called the predicate. Example: People who live in glasshouses shouldn't throw stones.

1.3. If a sentence has any other parts to it - indirect objects,adverbs or adverb phrases - these usually come in specific places:

1.3.1 The position of the indirect object

The indirect object follows the direct object when it is formed with the preposition to: The indirect object comes in front of the direct object if to is omitted Example: The doctor gave some or: The doctor gave the child some medicine. 1.3.2. The position of adverbs or adverb phrases These can come in three possible a) Before the subject (Notably with common adverbs or adverb phrases) Example: Yesterday the man wrote a letter b) After the object (Virtually any adverb or adverb phrase can be placed here) Example: The man wrote a letter on his computer in the train. c) In the middle of the verb group. (Notably with short common adverbs) places:

medicine

to

the

child.

Example: The man has already written his letter

1.4 In standard English, nothing usually comes between the subject and the verb, or between the verb and the object. There are a few exceptions. The most important of these are adverbs of frequency and indirect objects without to. Example: The man often I sometimes give my dog a bone.

wrote

his

mother

letter.

If you always apply these few simple rules, you will not make too many word order problems in English. The examples above are deliberately simple - but the rules can be applied even to complex sentences, with subordinate and coordinated clauses. Example: The director, [who often told his staff (to work harder),] never left the office before [he had checked his e-mail.] 2 Exceptions Of course, there are exceptions to many rules, and writers and speakers sometimes use different or unusual word order for special effects. But if we concentrate on the exceptions, we may forget the main principles, and the question of word order may start to seem very complex! So here are just a few examples: you should realise that they exist, but not try to use them unless either they are essential in the context, or else you have fully mastered normal word order patterns. (Don't try to run before you can walk!)

A few examples:
Never before had I seen such a magnificent exhibition.

(After never or never before, subject and verb can be - and usually are inverted. Do not invert when never follows the subject !).
Hardly had I left the house, than it started to rain.

(When a sentence starts with hardly, subject and verb must be inverted.). Had I known, I'd never have gone there. (Inversion occurs in unfulfilled hypothetical conditional structures when if is omitted.. See the page on conditional clauses for more details) The book that you gave me I'd read already. (The long object, The book that you gave me, is placed at the start of the sentence for reasons of style: this unusual sentence structure is not necessary, just stylistic).

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Going further: other issues of word order.

Specific word order issues are also considered on other pages:

Word order in relative clauses Word order with phrasal or prepositional verbs Determining the order of adjectives