Word Order Exercises

Read the word order rules and tendencies and then try the practice exercise.

Rules and Tendencies

• For expressions of time and place, the order is subject + verb + object + place + time.
  I write my reports at my desk every morning. (subject/verb/object/place/time)
  Kate swims laps in the pool every night. (subject/verb/object/place/time)

• We put adverbs of frequency before the main verb or after the verb to be.
  Adverbs of frequency include always, usually, normally, generally, often, sometimes, never. Sometimes is an exception — it can also be placed at the beginning of a sentence.
  John often gets to work early.
  John is often here early.
  Sometimes John gets to work early.
  John sometimes gets to work early.

• We don’t normally put an adverb between a verb and its object.
  I like English a lot.
  I like a lot English.

• Some questions have prepositions at the end of clauses.
  Where are you from?
  What school did you go to?
  What was the meeting about?

• The subject and verb must be inverted in a variety of situations. See this explanation from about.com.

Practice Exercise

Every sentence has a common word order mistake that English language learners make. Write the correct word order of the sentence in the blanks. More than one answer may be possible.

Additional word order exercises from around the web:

http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/complex_tests/word_order1/task.php
http://www.better-english.com/grammar/wordorder.htm
http://www.autoenglish.org/mistakes/mis-order.pdf