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I have rewritten a sentence like the one below several times, and I could not seem to put the prepositional phrases in an order that sounded correct to me. Is there a better way to construct this particular sentence? Are there any solid rules for ordering several prepositional phrases?

I have an interview on Friday with Joe Smith at ACME Inc for an Editor II position.

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    I'd front the temporal PP, and help the reader with a comma: On Friday, I have an interview with Joe Smith at ACME Inc, for an Editor II position. Sep 16, 2014 at 15:42

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The word order in the English language is: Subject-Verb-Objects-Manner-Place-Time + first most detailed, then more general information.

Therefore, this is how I would phrase it:

I have an interview with Joe Smith for an Editor II position at ACME Inc on Friday.

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    Source? There are other orders that work just as well Sep 16, 2014 at 20:03
  • Of course, @guifa, there are many to construct a sentence correctly. But SVOMPT is the most common method used to teach ESL students.
    – axomna
    Sep 16, 2014 at 20:25
  • I order by pertinance/relevance, so I'm curious where ESL texts get that order from. Is it defined in the CGEL or other similar grammar? Sep 16, 2014 at 20:32
  • I am afraid I can't cite the source, @guifa, as I am not a grammarian, but if you google "word order", SVO is the first thing that shows up. Besides, in school too (in India), we were taught to use the SVO method.
    – axomna
    Sep 16, 2014 at 20:42
  • I don't think anyone would argue against SVO. It's the ordering of adjuncts that can't be so rigidly defined. For example books.google.com/… , in other parts of the book (and mentioned briefly in this page) there are other forces going on that dictate order. Sep 16, 2014 at 21:00

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