Word Order and Sentence Order

Introduction

Suppose someone speaks to you with jumbled words. You will have no idea what they are trying to communicate. To have a proper conversation, it is of paramount importance that words are used correctly in a way that allows the conversation to make sense. This is so that the other party can understand. It is imperative for every individual to at least be able to comprehend the basic concepts of English, no matter where they work or what field they are in. The topics we will be covering in this article on the English language are word order and sentence structure, which are very basic yet important aspects of English.

What is Word Order?

Word order is the arrangement of the words in a sentence so that they make sense and convey the exact meaning the speaker wants to communicate. To speak of word order, one must know that it is very strict and that it cannot be flexible, unlike sentence order. This is because sentence order allows one to speak sentences in an active or passive voice. Your sentence can convey incorrect information even with a very small change in word order, resulting in strange and unclear conversations. According to the strict word order in English, the subject comes before the predicate, which can be expressed as Subject + Predicate.

People can make sense of a statement like, “I watched a black and white movie,” and understand the first person is talking about a retro film that displays just two colours, black and white. Instead of saying black and white, if he says he has watched a white and black movie, it will not make sense, and the context of his words will be hard to understand.

Basic Word Order

As we discussed in the previous topic, the basic word order that makes up an English sentence is Subject and Predicate. Predicate refers to that which conveys meaning about the subject and the subject is the thing on which the sentence is focused. A Subject and Predicate can also be divided based on their parts of speech:

subject + verb or subject + verb + object

As we discuss the structure of the sentence, we will learn more about this part of speech and how it is arranged.

What is Sentence Structure?

For a basic sentence to form and make sense, it at least needs to consist of two things we have already discussed and they are verbs and subject. Sentence structure basically refers to the arrangement of different parts of a sentence and the order in which they should be arranged, so as to make a correct and sensible context of the sentence. It is a very important topic in English that one should focus on as it further helps to improve fluency or say the same thing in a better way which may please the listener. It also helps in studying further concepts like active and passive voice which would further lead to understanding and mastering the English language.

Here is a closer look at each of the figures of speech that make up a sentence structure:

• • Subject: In a sentence, the subject is the name of something that was mentioned in the sentence; it may be a person, a place, a thing
  • Verb: The verb describes the activity, state of being, or occurrence of the subject
  • Verbs may be presented as a single verb or in the form of a phrase (a combination of words, but not exactly a sentence)
  • Object: When the subject has received or is affected by the verb in some way, it is referred to as an object
  • Essentially, object completes the sentence

The standard arrangement for these parts of speech is for the subject to be at the beginning or near the beginning of a sentence and coming before the verb. This is so that the verb can summarize what the subject has already said and then the object can summarize how the verb has affected the subject. Generally, native English speakers prefer this word order.

“My friends like to play football” means that in this sentence the subject is the one on whom the entire sentence is based. A verb can be used either as an independent clause or with a phrase, so then ‘like to play’ could be defined as a verb with a phrase, and what is left is football, which can be referred to as the object. There is also the possibility of adding some more things, such as “My friend likes playing football on the basketball court.”. The basketball court is where the verb describes what the subject is doing and the object that is ‘football on the basketball court completes the sentence.

Conclusion

The topics of word order and sentence order we discussed in this article are two very important topics in English. To hold a good conversation and write meaningfully one needs to know the proper usage of word order and sentence structure in English. It is of utmost importance to learn to use the sentence structure of English i.e. subject + verb + Object and the word order correctly.