Correct word order in an English sentence online. Some tips for writing English sentences

The absence of case endings in the English language dictates the rigid structure of the English sentence, the word order of which is uniquely defined for affirmative, negative and interrogative sentences.

To correctly build sentences in English, you need to learn the diagrams below for each type of sentence.

The affirmative sentence scheme looks like this:

For example:

This scheme is unchanged. For a person thinking in Russian, the only difficulty lies in the rigidity, invariability of this scheme, since the Russian language has a free word order. The English language cannot afford this. Inversion, or indirect word order, is also possible in English, but this is a topic for a separate discussion.

To better remember the order of words in a sentence, the English use a mnemonic rule-phrase: MisterSPOM,those. subject, predicate, object ,modifier.

Notes:

1. It must be remembered that a strictly defined structure of an English sentence is never complete without a subject or predicate, as is the case in Russian. English sentence always bipartite. Wed:

Winter.Itiswinter.

(subject only) (subject + verb)

It's getting cold. It is getting colder.

(only predicate) (subject + predicate)

2. Another type of incomplete sentences in Russian often causes errors when translating them into English. it sentences with a missing linking verb. The fact is that when pronouncing in Russian phrases like "My brother is a student. He is smart and hardworking”, a person is not always aware of their grammatical incompleteness: omission of a linking verb to be. In order to feel the need for a connecting verb between the subject and the predicate in such sentences, you need to put them in the past or future tense: My brother was (will be) a student. Such is the peculiarity of the Russian language that in the present tense the linking verb to be goes down. But the rigid structure of the English language does not allow such inconsistency, so it is sometimes not clear to a beginner to learn English where the extra word comes from when translating from Russian into English:

My brother — student.His eyes — grey.

my brother is a student. eyesare gray.

A characteristic element of the English sentence is the so-called auxiliary. It is called auxiliary because it helps to form negative and interrogative sentences, as well as complex verb forms.

Like any other member of an English sentence, the auxiliary verb has its strictly defined place in the sentence.

The negative sentence scheme looks like this:

Again, an “extra” word appears, which is not in the Russian sentence, because any not in English consists of two words: an auxiliary verb and not. They are so closely related that they often turn into one word, the so-called abbreviated form. For example : do not = don't; will not = won't it. P.

In an interrogative sentence, unlike a negative one, the auxiliary verb is placed not after the subject, but before it.

Respectively, The interrogative sentence looks like this:

Similar question to be answered Not really, is called general.

Even for an answer Not really Again, an auxiliary verb is required.

Schematic of an affirmative answer:

Negative response scheme:

The general question schema is the base for the other two question types: alternative and special. These and other types of questions should be studied after analyzing the individual parts of English speech.

Dima behaved well yesterday.

Yesterday Dima behaved well.

Dima behaved well yesterday.

Dima behaved well yesterday.

Dima behaved well yesterday.

Dima behaved well yesterday.

No matter how we say these sentences and in what order we put the words in them, their meaning will not change. With this example, we want to show the difference between the construction of Russian and English sentences. Indeed, it is precisely in the latter that such variations are impossible. All due to the fact that there are no endings in English, and in order not to lose the meaning that the speaker wants to convey, English philologists have established rules for composing sentences in English. They are quite clear and require strict adherence.

Consider the features of constructing affirmative sentences.

We have two spellings. The first option looks like this:

subject-predicate-object-adverb

She doesn't bake herself as a rule. Her boyfriend does it for her.

(She doesn't bake herself. Her boyfriend does)

He likes this book very much.

(He really likes this book.)

They will bring this book tomorrow.

(They will bring this book tomorrow)

The second option is written like this:

circumstance-subject-predicate-object

As a rule she doesn't bake herself. Her boyfriend does it for her.

(As a rule, she does not bake herself. Her boyfriend does it)

Yesterday Kevin met his classmates at the airport.

(Yesterday Kevin met his classmates at the airport.)

If we talk about interrogative sentences, it is worth noting that they also have characteristic features of writing.

In our article, we will learn how general and special questions are composed.

More about interrogative sentences:
Interrogative sentences in English

We build a general question according to the following scheme:

verb-subject- addition-circumstance

Will she be at the restaurant after 2?

(Will she be at the restaurant after two?)

Did you bring that book to the library?

(Did you bring that book to the library?)

We usually put “question-word” as the first word in interrogative sentences ( who, whom, where, why, what, which, when, whose, how, how much).

In second place we put an auxiliary verb ( am, is, are, does, did, do, will, shall, would, have, has, can, could, must, may, might, ought, need, should.) It is followed by the subject, the semantic verb, and the rest of the words.

How do you feel today?

(How do you feel today?)

How much sugar does she take in her coffee?

(How much sugar does she put in her coffee?)

Here we have given the main schemes for constructing sentences in English. But, there are some exceptions to the rules, and deviations from the given schemes. We invite you to learn about all these features at our school and get detailed information on this topic.

More significant success in building sentences in English will bring you the desire to think in English, and not just translate sentences from Russian. It will also be useful to watch movies or your favorite English series without translation and with subtitles. Firstly, it will bring not only the possibility of learning, but also spending time with pleasure. Secondly, visual memory will fix the textual accompaniment of the film, and you can always rewind the film and read unfamiliar phrases or words. The usefulness of American TV series also lies in the fact that they use a significant amount of slang sentences, exclamations and modern expressions, which, of course, you will need for everyday speech.

Our dear students, the entire Native English School team congratulates you on the coming Easter, wishes you sincerity from others, bright smiles, success in work, peace in the family and in the heart! See you! =)

Often, especially at the initial stage of learning a foreign language, there is a desire to build a phrase or sentence by analogy with the native one. Nevertheless, this is the failure and the very first mistake. Simple things become incomprehensible and confusing.
In order to have a conversation (doesn't matter orally or in writing, dialogue or monologue), we put words into sentences. What could be easier than translating the phrase into English:

I love you.
I love you.

Children eat apples.
Children eat apples.

But these cases are more the exception than the rule. It is worth swapping the terms, as the value changes.

"Apples eat children" takes on a bloodthirsty nature and translates as "Apples eat children", which could be part of a horror movie storyline. Why is this happening?
The fact is that the logic of the structure of the English language does not coincide with the logic of Russian. There are a number of reasons for this.

Reason #1. No endings

The English language is analytical in nature, with a clear structured structure, while the Russian language can afford to be more chaotic, being inflectional.
What does it mean: inflectional languages ​​can change word forms, expressing grammatical functions (gender, case, number) by changing endings (inflections), while in analytical groups we can express grammatical relations only through functional words, modal verbs, intonation, context , fixed word order.

Reason #2. No cases

The absence of cases and case endings in English makes it impossible for a word to independently express a grammatical connection with another word. Here are suggestions to help:

"table leg" will by no means become "a leg the table", but will take advantage of the preposition "a leg OF the table", where "of" conveys the nature of the Genitive case.

monster apples will become peaceful again when using the preposition “by”: Apples are eaten BY children. (in this example, you can see that eaten not only becomes part of the compound predicate, which is characteristic of the analytical structure, but changes the form (eat - ate - eaten), which is characteristic of inflectional languages, which English was originally. The loss of inflections (endings) is a tendency.

Reason #3. The difference in intonation structure

The English language has a structured intonation pattern. Certain types of sentences are pronounced with certain intonation patterns.
There is no mandatory standard in Russian.

We go on the instruments: schemes of declarative and interrogative sentences.

In the first place in the English declarative sentence is the one who performs the action. The second position is occupied by the action itself. The secondary parts of the sentence follow.

1. subject group 2. predicate group 3. everything else

(1) We (2) like (3) black coffee.
(1) Little children (2) don't go (3) to the park alone.
(1) My husband (2) never watches (3) news on TV.

In a question, the predicate and the subject are reversed.

0. asks. word 1. strong/modal verb 2. subject group 3. everything else

(0) (1) Do (2) you (3) like black coffee?
(0) Why (1) did (2) he (3) go abroad by himself?
(0) What color (1) are (2) the walls (3) of his house?

These are two fundamental schemes that work like clockwork in the English language. There are many smaller cases of "arrangement" of words. We offer you some of them:

1) adverbs of time often take place between subject and predicate / predicate and predicate:
He never smokes indoors.
You can always come back.

2) adverbs usually come after the verb:
You must work quickly.

3) put adjectives before the noun they define:
red drapes
a green round table

4) circumstances of time are used either at the very beginning or at the very end of the sentence:
In summer people have fun.
I usually walk in the evening.

5) sentences with structures there is / are (at all times) are translated into Russian from the end
There are a lot of rules and exceptions in English.
The English language has many rules and exceptions.

Victoria Tetkina

Dear students and parents, we have prepared an English lesson for you, which will help you understand the basic rules when building an English sentence. First, we will consider the types of sentences for the verbs used, and then we will learn how to build affirmative, interrogative and negative sentences. At the end of the article are tables that can be saved and printed to be used as visual material.

Types of offers.

In English, there are two types of sentences: with a regular verb denoting an action, feeling or state, and with a copula verb to be. Now we will tell you what the difference is. If in Russian we use a verb, then in English a verb will also be used. For example, "I go to school" - here the verb "go", which in English sounds like "go". We put this verb in the English sentence: “I go to school”. If there is no verb in Russian, or rather, there is a verb “is”, which, according to the rules of the Russian language, is omitted (The weather is good - The weather is good), then in English this place is replaced by the verb to be, which is translated as “is”, "to be", "to exist". In other words, in Russian we often use sentences without a verb, in English this is impossible!

Consider first sentences with ordinary verbs, they have one trick - in the third person singular, the ending -s or -es is necessarily added to the verb. The third person singular is a noun meaning he, she or it, that is, not you or me, but someone one third. At first glance, this seems complicated and incomprehensible, but in fact, this rule makes learning English very easy! There is no person conjugation in English. See how difficult Russian is and how easy English is:

I I go to school. I go to school.

Vasya (he) walks to school. Vasya goes to school.

Nastya (she) walks to school. Nastya goes to school.

They are walk to school. They go to school.

We we go to school. We go to school.

While in Russian the endings of the verb actively change by person: I go, walk, walk, walk, in English only in the third person singular (he and she) did the ending -es appear. If the verb ends in a consonant, then -s is added (swim - swim s), and if on a vowel, then -es (go - go es).

Consider examples with the verb to be. If in Russian we do not use the verb (that is, we omit the verb “is”), then in the English translation the verb to be will appear. Katya (is) a beautiful girl. There is no verb in Russian, in English there will be a verb to be in the form is: Katya is a beautiful girl.

The difficulty is that the verb to be has three forms that you need to know by heart:

1. am- we use it when we talk about ourselves: I (am) a schoolboy. I am a pupil
2. is- use in the third person singular (he, she, it): Katya (she) is a beautiful girl. Katya is a beautiful girl.
3. are- we use it in the plural or in the second person (we, they, you, you): Vanya and Petya (they) are best friends. Vanya and Petya are best friend.

Affirmative, negative and interrogative sentences.

Let us recall once again that in English there are two types of sentences: with an ordinary verb, which has a corresponding translation into Russian, and with a verb to be, which is omitted in Russian. These two types of sentences have a different structure. Let's start with the verb to be. Let's analyze the same examples, but in different forms: affirmative, interrogative and negative. Read carefully the Russian sentences and their translation into English, try to determine the pattern.

I am a student. I am a pupil.

Am I a student? Am I'm pupil?

I am not a student. I am not a pupil.

Katya is a beautiful girl. Katya is a beautiful girl

Is Katya a beautiful girl? Is Katya a beautiful girl?

Katya is an ugly girl. Katya is not a beautiful girl.

Vanya and Petya are best friends. Vanya and Petya are best friend.

Vanya and Petya are best friends? Are Vanya and Petya best friends?

Vanya and Petya are not best friends. Vanya and Petya are not best friend.

So, in an affirmative sentence in English, there is a strict word order: subject (main noun), predicate (verb), secondary members of the sentence. If in Russian we can change the order of words as we please, while changing the meaning and emotional coloring, then in English this is strictly prohibited, you will not be understood. In Russian we say: “I love you”, “I love you” or “I love you” and so on, but in English there is only one option: “I love you” and nothing else. The same in the given examples: Katya is a beautiful girl. Where Katya is the subject, there is no predicate in Russian (it could be the verb “is”), a beautiful girl is the secondary members of the sentence. In an English sentence: Katya is the subject, is is the predicate, a beautiful girl are secondary members of the sentence. Hence the two rules:

1. When constructing an interrogative sentence in English, the predicate (verb) comes first.
2. When constructing a negative sentence, a negative particle not is added to the predicate (verb).

Now consider sentences with ordinary verbs, read the examples carefully:

I go to school. I go to school.

I go to school? Do I go to school.

I do not go to school. I do not go to school.

Nastya goes to school. Nastya goes to school.

Nastya goes to school? Does Nastya go to school?

Nastya does not go to school. Nastya doesn't go to school.

The principle is the same as in sentences with the verb to be, only instead of rearranging the verb itself, we have the so-called auxiliary verb to do. Why auxiliary? Because it helps us build the necessary sentence structure and grammar. Thus, when asked, it is not the main verb to go that goes to the first place, but the helper to do. When negated, the particle not is attached not directly to the main verb, but to the appeared verb to do. In addition, the verb to do always takes over the entire grammar of the main verb. In the second example, the verb to do took over the ending -es, which is given to the third person singular. Note that the ending of the main verb was gone because the auxiliary verb took it away.

Let's summarize the information received. To build a sentence in English, we first need to define a verb. Two options are possible: the usual verb, which has an analogue in English, denoting an action, feeling or state, or the verb to be, is to exist, which is not translated into Russian. Further, if this is a regular verb, you need to determine whether the ending will be -es (third person singular), if it is a verb to be, then you need to determine its form (am, is, are). We choose the necessary form of the sentence: affirmative, interrogative, negative. And we put everything in its place!

We use common abbreviations:

I am - i a m - I'm

he is - he i s - he's

she is - she i s - she's

it is - it i s - it's

they are - they a re - they're

we are - we are - we're

you are - you a re - you're

do not - don o t - don't

does not - doesn't - doesn't

Interesting fact: In affirmative sentences with a regular verb, the auxiliary verb to do is also sometimes used. It adds credibility and firmness to the proposal. For example:

I go to school. I go to school.

I do go to school! I really go to school!

You can choose the course of study that suits you on ours!

In the photo - Oksana Igorevna, a teacher at the OkiDoki language school

As often in exams, in various tests, we are faced with the need to correctly compose a phrase from a set of words. If in Russian it almost doesn’t matter whether you start a sentence with a subject or a predicate, then in English there are certain principles that must be observed. Properly organized structure of the statement is the key to competent speech.

From the first days of acquaintance with English, it is necessary to remember a strict sentence scheme, word order. A clear sequence facilitates understanding, listening to speech. In written speech, language is presented not as a set of words, but as a structured statement.

Word order in an English sentence

Believe me, having mastered the basics of the interaction of the members of the proposal, it is safe to say that soon you will be able to speak. Yes, at first in simple phrases of two or three words, but gradually expand your vocabulary and diversify your speech. So, the rules of construction:

Subject + predicate + object + circumstance

Subject + predicate + object + adverbal modifier

The boy showed the mark-book yesterday. (The boy showed the diary yesterday)

subject skaz. additional the situation

Well, that's not all. There can be several circumstances or additions in one phrase. How to put everything in its place, not only from the lexical side, but also from the grammatical side? Let's look at an example:

• The construction of sentences in English is based on the fact that if there are several additions, then they alternate as follows:

indirect add. (to whom?) + direct (what) + with a preposition (to whom?)

She wrote her friend a letter. But: She wrote a letter to her friend. — She wrote a letter to her friend. = She wrote a letter to her friend. (there is no grammatical difference in Russian)

As can be seen from the example, if an indirect object is without a preposition, then it precedes the direct one, and if a preposition is used, then it comes after it.

• According to the word order in the English sentence, circumstances arranged like this:

mode of action (goals, reasons) (how?) + places (where? where?) + time (when?)

He was running quickly to his house at 6 o'clock yesterday. He ran home quickly at 6 o'clock yesterday.

If there is a need to logically highlight the circumstance of place or time, then it can be brought to the fore.

Moscow he visited many museums last year. In Moscow, he visited many museums last year.
last year he visited many museums in Moscow. — Last year he visited many museums in Moscow.

• There is also such a member of the sentence as definition. This free bird is always in front of the word to which it refers. Sometimes one definition is not enough to fully characterize the subject, so it is necessary to use several. How, what and where to put?

1. Article or possessive pronoun (or noun in Possesive Case), numerals + adjectives: my beautiful yellow hat , Tom's ugly big old Italian hunting boots, the first difficult examination question.
2. Adjectives in this order: Emotional attitude → fact: a nice sunny day - a beautiful sunny day.
3. Facts, if there are more than one, are arranged in the following order: size → age → color → from where → from what. Not necessarily in the sentence you will find all the characteristics, it can be two or three adjectives (definitions are most often adjectives), which means that skipping one of the elements of the scheme, put everything in the right order. Let's look at some examples: a nice small black plastic bag, a new black plastic bag.

A famous Scottish poet was born in 1750. - characterizes the subject - emotic. coloring + from where (Famous poet was born in 1750)

So, faced with the question, how to write sentences in english look at every word. First of all, it is necessary to find the main members (who performs the action, what, or over what, then - what happens, the action itself) and put them in first place. Then, minor members in accordance with the scheme.

But, I would also like to point out questions that are not exactly a violation, but a slight change in order. Thus, the subject and predicate firmly hold on to their places and do not yield to anyone, just like the circumstance and object. But, an interrogative sentence can begin with an auxiliary verb, modal or with a special word.

Did he live in Minsk? — Did he live in Minsk?

Do do you have a computer? - You have a computer?

Can will you take me to the museum? — Can you take me to the museum?

What kind of book are you reading now? - What book are you reading now?

Cases of violation of the direct word order in an English sentence

Of course, not without difficulty! The above scheme is most likely valid for 80% of affirmative statements. But there are some features worth remembering.

Such a grammatical phenomenon as inversion turns everything upside down. What it is? In cases where the structure of the sentence in English is broken, the reverse order of the subject and predicate is noted. But there is a certain, limited set of such situations.

1. In units of speech with turnover there is/there are the subject comes after the predicate.

There is a round table in the middle of the room. There is a round table in the middle of the room.

2. If the phrase begins with direct speech (with ""), and indirect follows it, the subject also changes places with the verb.

"I haven't painted for ages" said my friend. “I haven't painted in ages,” my friend said.

3. In statements beginning with "here", but only if the subject is expressed by a noun. But, if a pronoun is used in its place after here, then the direct order is preserved.

Here are the gloves you are looking for. “Here are the gloves you are looking for.

Here comes our teacher. Here comes our teacher.

BUT: Here it is. - Here it is. Here he comes. “Here he comes.

4. If the sentence begins with adverbs or conjunctions such as never (never), seldom (rarely), little (few), in vain (in vain), scarcely (barely), not only (not only), hardly (barely), then there is an inversion. Most often, disruption is used to give emotional coloring to the statement, and these words, which are brought to the fore, reinforce and emphasize the meaning.

In wine doesshedye her hair. — She dyes her hair in vain.

Never in his life has hegone abroad. He has never traveled abroad in his life.

Seldom can he come to see us. He rarely visits us.

5. In brief remarks, for example, such as So did I, Neither do I (And so did I).

Every morning I take a shower. - So do I. - I take a shower every morning. And me too.

She didn't read this book. — Neither did I. — She didn't read this book. And me too.

In principle, everything is very specific in syntactic constructions. With many rules and just as many exceptions, it is not difficult to build statements if you follow the instructions exactly. So, remember that the composition of sentences in English strictly obeys the scheme. Follow her, and then you will succeed!