Questions tagged [word-order]
This tag is for questions about the correct order of words in a phrase, or a sentence.
1,237
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Is it correct to put in brackets the professional title after the proper noun instead of putting the professional role before the proper noun? [closed]
“M'hemed Housseine Fantar (Archeologist) described”, or “the archaeologist M'Hemed Housseine Fantar described”?
2
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1
answer
41
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Subject placement in not only ... but also construction
This is an example taken from cambridge dictionary article not only ... but also:
Not only did she forget my birthday, but she also didn’t even
apologise for forgetting it.
In their example, the ...
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0
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41
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Is "say they" correct? [duplicate]
English is not my first language.
The text below is a translation of the Quran by Ahmed Ali :
And when it is said unto them, "Follow ye what God hath sent down", say they, "Nay! Follow ...
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56
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Why does the sequence of some types of adjectives differ?
I was reading a book, and a character calls another character "a gangly, little human". Now, if I were to use another adjective instead of little, say, tiny, I would have to say "a tiny,...
1
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1
answer
51
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Why does "other" need a specific position in a sentence?
Take the sentence:
In the background we can see other three people who are watching the film.
I think it's wrong and it would be right to say:
In the background we can see three other people who ...
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3
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2
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'I know what is freedom / freedom is'. <-- Word order in WH-questions
My understanding is that in a wh- subordinate clause, we must use statement word order (subject then verb) rather than question word order (verb then subject):
Correct: I know what freedom is.
Wrong:...
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34
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Word order for "What we can do as <noun>" [closed]
Which is better:
What can we do as doctors to improve health?
What can we do to improve health as doctors?
I think #1 is better because it's clearer that doctors is referring to we.
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35
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Meaning of 'To Marx are due X and Y' [duplicate]
This question is about the emphasized sentence in the following paragraph from Proposed Roads to Freedom by Bertrand Russell:
Socialism as a power in Europe may be said to begin with Marx. It is true ...
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1
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1
answer
87
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What other types of words have free word order?
What types of words allow the speaker to choose where they want to use it? I can only think of adverbs, where it is acceptable to say "we moved slowly" or "we slowly moved." Are ...
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4
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2
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631
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theorem Isosceles Triangle
I think the sentence 1 is idiomatic:
Sentence 1: The vessel Queen Elisabeth weighed anchor today at 19:00 at the port of Malta.
The word vessel is a noun and "Queen Elisabeth" is the noun ...
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0
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29
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Order of words with verb - "there is" vs "is there" [duplicate]
I just came across two very similar phrases. They seem to me both grammatically correct and normal, but I cannot quite justify their existence. They are :
1)...where not only is there only a small ...
1
vote
1
answer
361
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"See also" vs. "Also see" as a heading
I was surprised to se that there consistently is an "Also see"-section on this wiki (example). The heading I would expect is "See also", which is used e.g. on Wikipedia (example). ...
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Growing calls, calls have grown
I'm wondering if 'calls have grown for X to be Y-ed' is an acceptable substitute for 'there have been growing calls for X to be Y-ed'?
To clarify, these are examples of the latter from the first page ...
6
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4
answers
879
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Is there an order to prepositional phrases?
Which statement is correct?
The change adds more info to the changelog about the previous commits on May xx, xxxx.
Or:
The change adds more info about the previous commits on May xx, xxxx to the ...
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2
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228
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Word order: Can an adjective be a subject in an English sentence?
My favorite is apple pie.
Is it correct? Can the adjective be a subject in an English sentence?
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3
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208
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"when would be..." autocorrection
I have just been autocorrected as follows:
I wrote: "Please let me know when would be a good time to..."
Correction: "Please let me know when a good time would be to..."
I suppose ...
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4
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Is verb order significant when someone is [verb1]ing and [verb2]ing?
I came across some interesting dialogue in a tense scene in a novel, Salvation Lost by Peter F Hamilton:
"We'll know exactly what the other [people] are seeing and doing."
"Doing and ...
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1
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2
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position of 'ever' with a perfect gerund
The adverb 'ever' usually comes in mid-position, that is before the verb, after the auxiliary – if there is one – and after the first auxiliary if there are more than one. (Practical English Usage, ...
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1
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148
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Is ‘ask them to both be there’ or ‘they both will be there’ ever grammatical?
I am trying to articulate how to position the determiner/predeterminer ‘both’ behind the nouns being modified. Every rule that I came across on a cursory search involves some unspecified exception, so ...
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5
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350
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Does 'angle' as a noun necessarily receive a definite article?
Here is the sentence in dispute:
In humans, the femoral angle shows no correlation with femoral length.
The question: why would 'femoral angle' receive a definite article, but not 'femoral length'? ...
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6
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1
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One less thing to worry about
I am not a native English speaker but I usually feel comfortable speaking or writing in English. I also have a linguistic background. But this morning I finished a task, wiped it from my whiteboard, ...
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3
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Why is the structure interrogative-which-word – subject – verb (including question mark) being used so often? Is it grammatical?
I've noticed that more and more headlines of articles and ads (excluding those in more traditional online media) are of the structure interrogative-subject-verb instead of interrogative-verb-subject.
...
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2
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91
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Video Magazine or Magazine Video
Although the titular term needs no more explanation, as in the Wikipedia, Video magazines are a series of online videos that follow the print magazine format in which the reader/viewer consumes an ...
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Verb particle noun or verb noun particle: to leave out [duplicate]
Which sentence is grammatically correct or sounds more native-like?
Politicians tend to discuss their sources of income nontransparently, leaving the discussions surrounding them out.
Politicians ...
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1
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93
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Is it "on the bed in my room" or "in my room on the bed"?
She is on the bed in my room.
She is in my room on the bed.
Which of the above sentences is correct? Why?
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0
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31
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Which one is better "all incurred expenses" or "all expenses incurred?" [duplicate]
I am writing this document for HR at work and wish to outline what our staff should do to get reimbursed. The sentence should be something along the lines of...
All incurred expenses/expenses ...
0
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1
answer
64
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Which wording is correct, “how quick with me you are to anger” or “how quick to anger you are with me”?
I’m trying to figure out which wording is right, or at the very least which one sounds better.
How quick to anger you are with me.
or
How quick with me you are to anger.
This is pretty much what’s ...
3
votes
1
answer
653
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Why do we say "narrow artificial intelligence" but "artificial general intelligence"?
When discussing artificial intelligence, we often distinguish between "narrow artificial intelligence" and "artificial general intelligence".
Why does the word "artificial&...
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1
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Why does emphasis of "it" allow phrasal verb syntax that would otherwise not be grammatical?
Edit: the answer cited with the closure doesn't answer the question I posed; it merely reinforces the usual placement of the pronoun.
Consider the phrase dash it off.
I dashed it off without thinking ...
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Is the position of "sufficient surface area" correct in "allowing large volumes of water sufficient surface area to seep back into the ground"?
I found one passage that I really cannot understand the grammar structure. The below is the problematic sentence.
The crates feature voids, allowing large volumes of water sufficient surface area to ...
4
votes
1
answer
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Who is being fed in "Did hourly feed him by" from Walden, or, Life in the Woods? [duplicate]
There was a shepherd that did live,
And held his thoughts as high
As were the mounts whereon his flocks
Did hourly feed him by
From Walden, or, Life in the Woods by Henry David Thoreau
I'm confused ...
0
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0
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58
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'Only recently were they' and 'Only recently they were' [duplicate]
Only recently (in February 1998) women’s ice hockey was incorporated into the Olympic Winter Games, while men’s ice hockey has been a fixed event ever since the first Winter Games started in 1924.
...
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54
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Which of these possible multi-choice answers is correct and why? [duplicate]
A Chinese teacher of English asked me about the following, taken from an English test for Chinese people. It's quite tricky I think.
I would like to know three things:
Which answer or answers do you ...
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1
answer
124
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When can compound verbs be split? [duplicate]
Is it wrong to say:
He took the hat off.
when you could keep the compound verb “took off” together?
He took off the hat.
And is the rule changed at all by more words being placed in the phrase?
...
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1
answer
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The order in trio <noun>, required, to
These two possible combinations confuse me:
The energy required to heat the water is...
The required energy to heat the water is...
I have always used the first combination, but the AI grammar ...
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2
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78
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Why do we keep using the conjugated form of the verb "to do" before other verbs? [duplicate]
This seriously has me perplexed. I feel examples would better explain my question:
"What did you eat?" vs "What ate you?" *
Where did you go? vs "Where went you"?
using ...
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2
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73
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Order of words in "...has not only been..." [closed]
What's the correct order of the words in "...has not only been..."?
My original sentence:
My world not only has been turned inside out, but it’s also become increasingly bizarre.
One of my ...
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1
answer
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Does word order matter in “…(that) we do in the same manner” vs “…in the same manner (that) we do”?
Are both these sentences grammatically accurate and can they be used interchangeably?
It is dangerous for ecologists to assume other species sense the environment we do in the same manner.
It is ...
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2
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140
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soon need, or need soon?
I was reading a story when there was the following sentence fragment, "..., it was nothing like what we would need soon."
I respect this author and I believe he is careful with his words and ...
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votes
2
answers
105
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Word order: Tucker Carlson’s Exit Shows Who’s the Real Star at Fox
I saw this headline at the Politico web site: "Tucker Carlson’s Exit Shows Who’s the Real Star at Fox". Shouldn't it be "Tucker Carlson’s Exit Shows Who the Real Star at Fox Is"?
I ...
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Does 'commonly' modify a verb in this sentence from Walden?
In the first chapter of Walden, Thoreau writes:
The most interesting dwellings in this country,
as the painter knows, are the most unpretending, humble log huts and cottages
of the poor commonly; it ...
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4
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278
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In the Wizard of Oz, the scarecrow sings, "If I only had a brain." Doesn't he really mean, "If only I had a brain"? [duplicate]
In the Wizard of Oz, the scarecrow sings, "If I only had a brain." Doesn't he really mean, "If only I had a brain"?
I think the sentence the scarecrow sings actually asks what it ...
1
vote
1
answer
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Position of the word "being"
In the following sentence:
This is the setting where such a phenomenon appears, being ((example)) a first important example.
Is the position of the word "being" correct? Is the following ...
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91
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Phrasal-verb word order
Cambridge Dictionary says that we must only put the particles of phrasal verbs after the object if the object is a personal pronoun. Now, I really would like you to prove my thought about it, viz.: ...
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2
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Word order in embedded clause: "had little conception of... how supine was the Security Council"
I find the word order of this sentence interesting:
You will all know the outlines of this disaster, but I suggest that many people, including me before I went down this road, had really little ...
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Having not Written/not Having Written [closed]
Could you, too, say which is correct and which is quite wrong?
Not having written his book, Mr. George was mercilessly massacred;
Having not written his book, Mr. George was mercilessly massacred.
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Word order in relative clauses
Could you tell me which one is correct? In order to get the answer, I asked a native about it, but, unfortunately, they weren't able to give me a definitive answer, so I decided it was worth posting ...
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Descending or Increasing Word Order?
Now, I've got a question being able to make the world spin around itself as it has never before!
When we've got more than one time or place adverb in the sentence, do we put them in descending order ...
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0
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93
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I Kid You not - Word Order
I have already asked about whether we can put not at the end where it would normally be put right after the auxiliary, and, as I've understood, we cannot normally do that. However, I've heard the ...
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2
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Difference in nuance or meaning between "The result, American officials say…" and "American officials say the result…"
The following is an excerpt from The New York Times of Feb.2. 2023.
If the last sentence reads: "American officials say the result has been hundreds of troops killed or injured a day," does ...
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