Is “On Sundays my sister and I never play hockey” correct?

Question

Is there a rule here about when it is/isn't ok to put the time something happens at the beginning of the sentence?

'My sister and I never play hockey on Sundays' is fine, but putting the time at the beginning of the sentence feels wrong here, because of the 'never'.

On Sundays my sister and I never play hockey.

But in some sentences both would be ok, e.g.:

• Aziz and I took beautiful photos in the park yesterday.
• Yesterday Aziz and I took beautiful photos in the park.

Is the possible word order different for past actions than for ongoing/repeating ones?

Answer 1

There are no rules in English, there is only guidance. “Rules are for the obedience of fools and the guidance of wise men.”

Adverbs, adverbial phrases and adverbial clauses have a default order in English: Place, Manner, Time. This can be adapted to add slight emphasis:

The first order of prepositional phrases in English is subject, verb, Place, Manner, Time:

I went to London (P) by plane (M) last week (T).

The second order of prepositional phrases emphasises the time element. In this, the time element comes first:

Last week (T), I went to London (P) by plane (M).

The third order of prepositional phrases emphasises the manner element. In this, the manner element comes first:

“With British Airways (M), I can arrive in London (P) at 7 o’clock local (T).”

However, English is very flexible with the position in the sentence of adverbs, adverbial phrases and adverbial clauses. Everything depends upon context and which element you wish to emphasise.

The above is simply a general guide, all the elements of Place, Manner and Time may not appear, and sometimes there will be more than one of them.

Place, Manner, Time can be expanded to Place + Manner + Frequency + Time + Reason + Purpose+ Quantity + Quality

and sometimes, there is more than one element in the sentence.

Every year (F) in August (t), I go with my wife (M) to Cape Town (P) via Rome (M) by plane (M) for our anniversary (Purpose).

I go to Paris(P) by plane (M) in first-class (Quality) to have a meeting about business (Purpose) on two occasions (Quantity) each year (F) in summer (T),

Answer 2

The order in the sentence - and in any complex sentence with subordination is a matter of emphasis. What is it that you are trying to say? Where does the emphasis lie.

So in the first sentence the writer is telling us what she and her sister do (or, in this case, never do) on Sundays. What happens or does not happen on Sundays is the sentence's topic.

If you move "on Sundays" to the end, the sentence tells us when they don't play tennis.

The meaning and so truth conditions are the same in both but the point being made is subtly different.

Answer 3

The suggested sentence is a little "odd", but not technically wrong. And it would be quite appropriate in certain contexts, such as writing "My sister and I play hockey several times a week, when we are both free from other responsibilities. But on Sundays my sister and I never play hockey."

(OK, that's a little awkward, but it explains how context is involved.)

Answer 4

I think the real issue here is not the order of phrases, but rather the structure of the sentence, which determines the scope of the different phrases.

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To see what I mean, imagine that I'm describing a picture to you, and I say one of the following sentences:

• "The woman is talking to the man on the left."
• "On the left, the woman is talking to the man."

Both are completely grammatical, but they have completely different meanings. Grammatically, this happens because the adverbial "on the left" modifies "man" or "the man" in the former case, and modifies the entire sentence in the latter case.

If I add the word "not", the two sentences diverge even further:

• "The woman is not talking to the man on the left."
• "On the left, the woman is not talking to the man."

because in the former, the negation has scope over the whole phrase "talking to the man on the left" — the sentence says nothing about whether, say, the woman is instead talking to the man on the right — whereas in the latter, the negation only has scope over the phrase "talking to the man".

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Your example is a bit subtler, because the two sentences have essentially the same meaning:

• "My sister and I never play hockey on Sundays."
• "On Sundays, my sister and I never play hockey."

In the first sentence, the adverbial "on Sundays" modifies "play hockey", so the adverb "never" modifies "play hockey on Sundays". In the second sentence, the adverb "never" modifies only "play hockey", and "on Sundays" modifies the entire sentence.

I think the reason that the second sentence feels awkward to you is that it gives "on Sundays" (which is time-limited) scope over "never" (which normally isn't); it comes off a bit like trying to use "In my family, the tallest person in the world is ___" to mean "The tallest person in my family is ___".

Nonetheless, I think that "On Sundays, my sister and I never play hockey" can be perfectly fine, given a context that makes it work; for example, if I'm describing my schedule by day of the week, and I've already mentioned various days on which my sister and I sometimes play hockey and various days on which my sister and I always play hockey, then when I get to Sunday, I don't think anyone would bat an eye if I say that "On Sundays, my sister and I never play hockey."

Answer 5

Is “On Sundays my sister and I never play hockey” correct?

Yes it is correct.