Word order and sentence structure: Essential English grammar

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.

► 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 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 the following 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 medicine to the child.
or: The doctor gave the child some medicine.

1.3.2. Adverbs or adverb phrases can come in three possible places:
- Before the subject (Notably with common adverbs or adverb phrases)
    Example: Yesterday the man wrote a letter.
- 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.
   - In the middle of the verb group. (Notably with short common adverbs)
   Example The manhas 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 wrote his mother a letter.
I sometimes give my dog a bone.

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.

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).
- 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).

► Click here for Word order in English questions:

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

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L'ordre des mots en anglais

Word order and sentence structure in English

How to build correctly ordered sentences in English