What is the first thing that comes to mind when you mention learning a language? Probably four turtles, on which everything rests: grammar, colloquial speech, vocabulary and listening comprehension. Today's topic - word order in an English sentence - refers to two of them at once. Without knowledge of the location of words, it is unlikely that you will be able to write or say something correctly. Without exaggeration, one can call knowledge of this topic the "skeleton" of the language. Understanding what follows and what follows, you can easily and simply substitute the necessary words in a certain scheme, changing them according to your desire.
What should you always remember?
In English, as in any other language, there are main members of the sentence and minor ones. Each of these categories has its own rules. The first thing to remember is that English word order is not similar to Russian. Many people who start learning a language give away their small amount of knowledge precisely by the incorrect construction of the sentence.
When communicating with more experienced comrades ornative speakers can get into rather awkward situations. For example, the phrase "Julia goes to the store" in Russian can sound like "Julia goes to the store." There is nothing criminal in such a change of words, and the meaning does not change at all, but if we literally translate these sentences into English, we get: "Julia is going to the store" (first option) and "The store is going to Julia" (second option). If a person who knows English hears the last example in a conversation, at best he will laugh, and at worst he will twist his finger at his temple: "Where has it been seen that shops go to Yule?".
From this example, we can conclude that the word order in a sentence in English is stable. The rule about "reversal of terms and a constant sum" does not work here. Due to the fact that English has no endings, the meaning of a word can sometimes be understood only by its place in a sentence. An example with the word name (name / name):
- What is your name? - What is your name? Literally - What is your name?
- You name all vegetables you like. - You name all the vegetables you like.
Never forget that the correct word order in a sentence in English is very important. And its non-observance can radically change the meaning of the phrase.
Basic rules for word order in an English sentence
The simplest English sentence scheme looks like this: Subject + Predicate + Object + Adverb.
As said before -word order cannot be changed.
Subject - one of the two main members of the sentence, which answers the questions who? what? and denotes an object or person.
The predicate is the second main member of the sentence. It denotes the action that the sentence is talking about. In English sentences, the predicate is always present, unlike in Russian. Often it can be expressed with the verb to be, which many students forget about due to its absence in their native grammar.
- I am a friend. - I am a friend.
- It's raining now. - It is raining now.
Addition refers to the secondary members of the sentence, it denotes the object on which the action of the predicate is carried out, and answers the questions of indirect cases.
Circumstance is another minor member of the sentence. It can characterize the action or its cause, indicate the time and location. Circumstances such as tomorrow, yesterday, at the moment + place circumstances can appear at the beginning of a sentence before the subject.
According to the scheme presented above, the simplest affirmative sentences of the English language are built. Here are some examples:
- I met him in the park. - I met him in the park.
- He helps her with pleasure. - He helps her with pleasure.
- I don't have time right now. - Now I haven`t got any time.
Word order in an English interrogative sentence
With even a little immersion in learning English, you can seethat interrogative constructions in it have a number of significant differences (from the usual Slavic ones). If in Russian you can ask by simply changing the intonation or putting the appropriate sign at the end of the phrase, then this will not work here - you need to completely rebuild the sentence. There are five different types of questions, and each one has a different word order that you need to know.
What keeps everything going?
The general question is the basis of the basics. This type is the simplest - you just need to make a slight inversion of the words in the sentence and put in the first place an auxiliary or modal verb that will indicate tense and person. The scheme is as follows: Auxiliary verb + subject + predicate + object?
- Are you watching TV? - Do you watch TV?
- Can you help me? - Could you help me?
Special questions
In English, the word order in an interrogative sentence of this kind practically does not differ from the general one, you just need to add a certain word at the beginning. What is it? Such questions can be considered more specific, they enable a person to find out more real information. There are six basic question words in total:
- What (what)? - to clarify the subject;
- Where? - to find out the place;
- Why (why)? - determine the cause;
- How? - understand ways;
- Which (which)? - identify a specific person from several;
- When (when)? - inquire about the time.
Such questions have the following pattern: Special word + OB (general question)?
- What are you doing? - What are you doing?
- Where have I left my phone? - Where did I leave my phone?
As you can see, the general question underlies the subsequent ones, so more time should be allocated for its study. Sentence word order exercises are common in English, so finding them to practice is easy. It must be remembered that this moment cannot be neglected, because you can simply forget all the details and subtleties. With constant polishing, the learned information will become "native", and the word order in the English sentence will be automatically generated by the brain.
Features of the question to the subject
Quite often this kind of "fasten" with special questions, and this action is quite logical. In the first place is the special word What?, which is used when talking about an object, or Who?, when talking about someone alive. The purpose of such a question is to find out the object of the conversation. It has the following scheme: Subject expressed by the question words What and Who + predicate + object + circumstance?
- Who will come to your class? - Who will come to your class?
- What gets you upset? - What makes you upset?
The main thing to remember about this question is that it has a construction similar to a regular sentence, just the subject is replaced by special pronouns.
Alternative and disjunctive questions
The fourth type of interrogative sentence is alternative. As you might guess, it gives the person being interviewed a choice. Therefore, it will definitely contain the word "or" (or).
Fifth final type of questions - disjunctive. They are also called - "tailed". They have a structure at the end that translates as "isn't it." The first part of the sentence remains declarative without changes, and in the second, an auxiliary word of the right time and in a certain form is written. If there was an affirmation in the original phrase, then there will be a negation in the "tail", and vice versa.
These kinds of interrogative sentences do not have one stable pattern. Why? For example, an alternative question can be linked to any member of the sentence, and each such option will have its own type of scheme. Speaking of separating sentences, they do not have any special differences from the most common phrases that were analyzed at the beginning of the article, the main thing is not to forget about the "tail".
- It is hard to understand you, is not it? - It's hard to understand you, isn't it?
- She is not doing her homework, is she? - She doesn't do her homework, does she?
- Is the T-shirt you bought green or pink? - Is the T-shirt you bought green or pink?
- Are we reading or listening? - Are we reading or listening?
How can I fix the result?
Of course, for productive learning you need to performword order exercises in English sentences. At the initial stage, the most fruitful will be work according to the scheme "independent implementation + verification by the teacher." Try to translate sentences using the examples of the above phrases. Initially, using schemas.
For even better assimilation of the material, you can try to translate the most familiar phrases often used in everyday speech into English using patterns already memorized. Thus, there is a partial immersion in the language environment. Forcing yourself to think in a foreign language is the key to successful learning.
Learning the order of words in an English sentence can be a good and strong thread on which you can later string beads of new knowledge.
