Syntax and word order
(Rules for the English syntax and word order in a sentence)
What is the word order in English grammar?
As a learner, you need to know that the sentence structure, which is the word order, is considerably rigid in English. This lack of flexibility occurs because the constituents of the sentence cannot be moved arbitrarily within it. So, they usually need to occupy their fixed place or position. In principle, the subsequent order of the constituents or parts applies in positive and negative English sentences:
Rule for English sentence formation
S-V-O
is the acronym (abbreviation) for
Subject (S)–Verb (V, main verb)–Object (O)
In most cases, this order may not be changed. Compare the examples:
| Subject | Verb(s) | Object |
| I | drink | coffee. |
| You | don’t have | a car. |
| We | can play | the guitar. |
In a more detailed breakdown, the English sentence structure looks as follows. Note that the place (details: locative adverbials) always comes before the time (details: temporal adverbials):
| Subject | Verb(s) | Indirect object | Direct object | Place | Time |
| He | can give | her | the book | at home | tomorrow. |
| They | are going to write | him | a letter | at work | next week. |
Alternatively, the adverbial of time may appear at the beginning of the sentence:
| Time | Subject | Verb | Indirect object | Direct object | Place |
| Every day | Sue | does | – | exercises | at the gym. |
Subordinate clauses can be extended by a preceding conjunction (connective words in English):
| Conjunction | Subject | Verb(s) | Indirect object | Direct object | Place | Time |
| because | they | won’t be | – | – | there | later. |
| and | I | cannot tell | you | the secret | – | now. |
What is the typical word order in questions?
Interrogative sentences, which are questions in most cases, also retain the order of subject–verb–object. Note, however, that the question word appears at the beginning of the sentence, and the auxiliary verb moves to the position in front of the subject:
| Question word | Auxiliary verb | Subject | Main verb | Indirect object | Direct object | Place | Time |
| Why | can’t | he | help | me | – | at work | tomorrow? |
| When | did | you | come | – | – | home | last night? |
Further explanations related to the ‘English syntax and word order’
The following explanations relate to the topic ‘Rules for the sentence structure and word order in English grammar’ and could be interesting too:
- Using auxiliary verbs
- The subject in English grammar
- The predicate/verb in English grammar
- The object in English grammar
- Exercise 1: word order in English