Hey there, this post contains affiliate links. If you purchase through these links, I may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you.
Word order in English refers to the arrangement of words in a sentence to convey meaning. When word order is sound and everything is in the write place, the meaning in your sentences are clear. However, things can go wrong and cause confusion when your words, phrases, and clauses are out of order. Learn the rules for clear communication.
Word order is the secret code to clear English. For ESL learners, understanding how words are arranged in a sentence is crucial for making your meaning clear. English word order isn’t arbitrary; it follows specific rules. This post will reveal these rules, focusing on how to think of a sentence as a mini-story and how the placement of adverbials can drastically change the meaning.
Who + Doing + What: The Mini-Story:
Think of every English sentence as a mini-story. Every story needs a who, a doing, and a what. In grammatical terms, these are the Subject, Verb, and Object. This basic structure forms the core of most English sentences.
- Who (Subject) + Doing (Verb) + What (Object)
- Example: The chef (Who) prepared (Doing) the meal (What).
This basic structure is the foundation upon which we build more complex sentences.
Grammar Imperatives: Keeping the Story Straight:
There are some essential rules, which I call “grammar imperatives,” that help to keep the story of your sentence clear. Two of the most important rules relate to word order:
- Don’t separate the subject from the verb: The who and the doing should always be close together. Inserting words between them can make the sentence confusing.
- Don’t separate the verb from its object: The doing and the what should also stay together. Putting other words between them will break your sentence.
The takeaway is that some imperatives are best practices while others are hard and fast rules.
What I mean by separate is to inject some kind of indirect modifier – either adjectival or adverbial phrases. I describe the different phrase types and functions in my previous post, which you can find with the link.
Break it to fix it: Examples of poor and good word order
So, in keeping with imperatives 1 and 2, you want to keep the base clause together and modify around the base clause, not within it.
Poor Order: The security guard, who had been walking around the facility, came back to discover the break-in.
Better Order: The security guard came back to discover the break-in after he had been walking around the facility.
Explanation: The relative clause, inserted between the subject noun and the verb, creates space and ambiguity between the subject and its verb, breaking imperative 1.
Expanding the Story: Adverbials:
Once you have your basic Who + Doing + What, you can add details to your mini-story. These details often tell us how, where, when, or why something happened. We call these details adverbials.
Adverbials are phrases or clauses that work like adverbs in a sentence. Adverbials usually line up in order at the tail end of the sentence.
The standard order for adverbials in English is: How + Where + When + Why. Think of it as a logical progression: How something was done, Where it was done, When it was done, and Why it was done.
Example:
Let’s take a simple sentence and expand it with adverbials:
- Base Clause: The children played games.
Now, let’s add adverbials:
- How: The children played games enthusiastically.
- Where: The children played games enthusiastically in the park.
- When: The children played games enthusiastically in the park after school.
- Why: The children played games enthusiastically in the park after school to have fun.
Putting it all together: The children played games enthusiastically in the park after school to have fun.
Notice how all the adverbials “point” back to the verb “played.” They modify how, where, when, and why the playing happened.
Changing the Order, Changing the Meaning:
The order of adverbials matters! If you change the order, you can change the meaning of the sentence, sometimes subtly, sometimes dramatically.
- Original: The children played games enthusiastically in the park after school to have fun. (The purpose of playing was to have fun.)
- Changed: The children played games enthusiastically to have fun in the park after school. (This could imply that the fun was specifically in the park.)
The change in meaning stems from a rule of English, my Grammar Imperative 6, stating that a modifier must be near or point to the thing it modifies.
When your adverbial phrases are in the proper order, they all point to the base clause. However, when you break that order, the following adverbial is modifying the phrase before it. That’s what causes the change in meaning and a potential cause for confusion.
Word Order Mistakes: Misplaced Modifiers Cause Confusion in Sentences
Word order in English can be tricky, especially for ESL learners. Even if you know the basic rules, there are still some common mistakes that can trip you up. One of the biggest trouble spots is misplaced modifiers.
As Grammar Imperative 6 in my book “English Grammar Explained” states, “When modifiers are in the wrong place, you break the logic of the sentence. Keep a modifier near the thing that it modifies.”
Modifiers are words or phrases that describe or give more information about other parts of the sentence. When they’re misplaced, they can make your writing confusing or even change the meaning entirely.
Want to master the art of clear and concise English sentences? Download my free eBook, “The 9 Grammar Imperatives,” and discover essential rules for sentence building! This will give you a preview of my book English Grammar Explained along with some practical exercises on this topic.
Misplaced Modifiers
A misplaced modifier is a word or phrase that is placed too far away from the word it’s supposed to modify. This can lead to awkward or unclear sentences.
Example:
- Incorrect: Walking down the street, the dog barked at me. (This suggests the dog was walking down the street.)
- Correct: The dog barked at me while I was walking down the street.
Example:
- Incorrect: I ate a sandwich with mustard on the train. (This suggests the train had mustard on it.)
Correct: I ate a sandwich on the train with mustard.
Dangling Modifiers
A dangling modifier is a type of misplaced modifier that occurs when the word being modified is missing from the sentence entirely.
Example:
- Incorrect: After finishing my homework, the TV was turned on. (This suggests the TV finished your homework.)
- Correct: After finishing my homework, I turned on the TV.
Example:
- Incorrect: To improve your writing, grammar rules should be studied. (This suggests the grammar rules are improving your writing.)
- Correct: To improve your writing, you should study grammar rules.
Avoiding Misplaced Modifiers
The key to avoiding misplaced modifiers is to keep them as close as possible to the words they modify. Pay attention to the logical flow of your sentences and make sure the meaning is clear.
Want to learn more about mastering English grammar? Download my free eBook, “The 9 Grammar Imperatives for Clear English Sentences,” and discover essential rules for sentence building!
Why This Matters for ESL Learners:
As an EFL teacher in Poland for more than 18 years, I have come across plenty of English learners with poor word order. I call them “false beginners.”
They are false beginners in that they can communicate some in English. They get their thoughts out but in a jumbled way with bad order.
These are people who have been exposed to English all around them with the Internet, Netflix, YouTube, and more. But they never formally learned English, so their version of word order is to use the English words they know in an arrangement similar to how they would say it in their own language – basically translating.
This causes all sorts of problems as the “sentences” are often incomplete with modifiers coming in the wrong place.
I can’t stress enough that the kind of mistakes you might make with word order are much worse than any verb tense mistake.
Here are 4 compelling reasons why you need to master word order:
- Speaking and writing clear, understandable English.
- Avoiding confusion and miscommunication.
- Understanding the nuances of meaning in English sentences.
- Improving your fluency and confidence.
Conclusion
By thinking of sentences as mini-stories and understanding the rules of word order, you can unlock the secret code to clear and effective English communication. Pay close attention to the placement of adverbials, as this is a common area where ESL learners can make mistakes. In our next post, we’ll explore the different types of sentences and how they’re constructed.
English Grammar Explained
For ESL and non-native English learners, word order can be difficult, especially if it differs from your mother language. My book, English Grammar Explained, teaches you all the worder order rules you need to know, provides examples, and how to avoid common mistakes. This will make your sentences clearer and more understandable. Pick up your copy today!
