Grammar » A1 Grammar lessons and exercises » Basic word order in English
Exercises Explanation Downloads
  • Basic word order in English

    Exercise 1

    Fill in the gaps with the correct options.

    1 I didn't like last night.

    2 We arrived .

    3 Teresa speaks .

    4 Please, can you put ?

    5 After the accident, Jim was .

    6 I like .

    7 They met .

    8 Tigers approach .

    9 I saw .

    10 He finished .


     

  • Basic word order in English – Grammar chart

    Basic word order in English

    Download full-size image from Pinterest

     

    Subject + verb

    In English, we normally need to include the subject in a sentence. The subject goes before the verb.

    • We dance.
    • She is waiting.

    We use it or they as subject, to talk about something that we mentioned before.

    • I like your guitar. It is nice. (NOT I like your guitar. Is nice.)
    • Can you see those trees? They are beautiful. (NOT Can you see those trees? Are beautiful.)

    We don’t include the subject in imperative sentences.

    • Sit down, please.
    • Call me soon.

    We can put an adverb of frequency between the subject and the verb. BUT adverbs of frequency go after the verb when the verb is be.

    • We often dance.
    • BUT: You are always late.

     

    Verb + object

    When there is an object in the sentence, we need to put it after the verb. Verb and object are together.

    • I like pizza very much. (NOT I like very much pizza.)
    • She plays the guitar every day. (NOT She plays every day the guitar.

     

    Place + time

    We normally say ‘where’ and ‘when’ something happens in this order.

    • She arrives at the hospital in the morning. (NOT She arrives in the morning at the hospital.)
    • Will you be in the office at 3 pm(NOT Will you be at 3 pm in the office?)
  • We are working on this!

    We're developing a NEW LEARNING PLATFORM with a subscription plan that includes additional features at an affordable price. One of those features will be PDF downloads.

    Learn more!

  • Personalized English Lessons

    Test-English is delighted to announce our partnership with Gymglish to deliver short, personalized and fun online English lessons.

    Learn more!