Word Order

English is an SVO language: Subject Verb Object. You can put the adverbial clause or phrase before or after these three.
e.g.    (i) I like ice-cream very much.      (ii) In winter people get colds and flu.

(e.g.  Japanese is an SOV language)

Exercise One:

Put these words in the right order.
Rwanda a week friend saw I last from the in street together coffee had we and. Nice priest and very a man a he´s. Him to glad very see was I. Met first wasn´t good his him English I when very but excellent practice after English his years was of two.

The answer is:

Last week I saw a friend from Rwanda in the street and we had coffee together. He´s a priest and a very nice man. I was very glad to see him. When I first met him his English wasn´t good but his English was excellent after two years of practice.

 

Exercise 2 (Just for fun!):

Tuesday Monday Wednesday Thursday after before comes is and week-end before Friday is the and. Saturday Sunday again after and comes starts then week the.

 

The answer is:

Monday comes before Tuesday and Thursday is after Wednesday and Friday is before the week-end. Sunday comes after Saturday and then the week starts again.

 

Exercise 3 Can you organize this difficult rhyme?

Thirty, thirty-one, twenty-eight, twenty-nine, days, September, November, April, June, February, and, have, has, rest, all, the, alone, except, leap-year, each, clear, days, has, which, and,in.

The answer is:

Thirty days has September, April, June and November,
all the rest have thirty-one,
except February alone,
which has twenty-eight days clear,
and twenty-nine in each leap year.
(This is traditional doggerel to help school children to remember how many days there are in each month).

Which day is which?

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Saturn's day, Luna day, Mars' day, Mercury, Jupiter (or Thor), Venus, Sol.

The answer is:

Saturday = Saturn's day. Sol (or the Sun) is Sunday. Luna is for Monday. Mars is for Tuesday. Mercury is for Wednesday. Jupiter is Thursday. Venus is Friday.

See The A - Z of English Grammar & Usage for the rules.

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