Yesterday one of my students made a mistake in word order, so today I made a new lesson for everyone about how to observe these rules.

A. The first and the primary rule is 1. Subject + 2. Verb + 3. Object

1. Margaret 2. follows 3. the rule of the word order.

1. They 2. speak 3. English.

1. Who 2. reads 3. the book?

1. Your sister 2. is 3. early today.

B. The second rule is place before time.

1. They speak English at school (place=where?) every day (time=when?).
2. Your sister went to bed (place) early today (time).
3. Who is reading the book there (where?) for fifteen minutes already (time=how long?)?
4. Margaret follows the rule of the word order every day (time=how often?).

The other rules are easier. So we will achieve our learning goals!

C. We have the list of the adverbs of time such as “always”, “usually”, “already”, “sometimes” etc. and “also”, “both”, “all”.

C.1) We place them before the verb:

1. They also play football.
2. He usually goes to bed at 9 pm.
3. We both live in the USA.
4. I often go to the theater with my friends.

C.2) In case if we have the verb “to be”, we place them after the verb:

1. I am always in time.
2. You are never late.
3. Hans is also at school now.
4. They are both students.

C.3) When we have two verbs in one phrase, we place the adverb between them:

1. You can always go to the cinema with your friends.
2. I will always love you.
3. Sorry, but we can never avoid the rules.
4. They can also enjoy the play; just invite them with you.

What next?

D.1) If we ask questions, we put the auxiliary verb before the subject, and then we place the main verb:

1. Do you like dogs?
2. Does Jim have a cat?
3. Do they remember their college friends after 25 years?
4. Does your school have central heating?
5. What do you do?

D.2) If we have the verb to be, we place it before subject (then we put the main verb if we have Continuous tense):

1. Are you ready?
2. Is he going to China?
3. Where are they?
4. How are you?
5. Are we singing today? Let’s go!

D.3) The same rule concerns Past Simple/Continuous, Future Simple, Present Simple/Continuous/Perfect, etc.:

1. Did your friend call you back?
2. Were you in the downtown when that case happened?
3. Was he walking down the street when you called him?
4. Was Tom reading the book when Jerry interrupted him?
5. Will we agree that offer?
6. Will you be my girlfriend?
7. Do you think about the film?
8. Has he saved all of you?
9. What are you doing now?

D.4) When we have negatives, we put the auxiliary verb + not (or another negative as never, nothing) before the subject:

1. Anna doesn’t want to eat ice-cream.
2. Fred is not going to China; he is going to Chicago.
3. We will not agree their offers because they do not look honest.
4. Nadine wasn’t going to stop her speech.

Find out your homework here.