Word order in English sentences: rules, logic, and exceptions

20 February 2026

English-learners

Oleksandra Kulish

Book expert

Building sentences in English often causes difficulties, but this material is important to master well, since a sentence is the basis of both written and spoken speech.

Unlike English, the Ukrainian language is quite flexible thanks to the case system, which allows the use of a non-fixed word order in a sentence. For example, we can express the same idea in several ways:

Oleksii read a book — A book was read by Oleksii.

In English, such rearrangements will change the meaning:

Mary hugged Tom. — Tom hugged Mary.

(Mary hugged Tom — Tom hugged Mary).

From this it follows that in the English language the word order is clearly defined, and violating this order can change the meaning of the sentence. In this article, we will look at how to correctly arrange the components of a sentence in order to avoid mistakes.

Note that in this article we will focus on the rules for building a standard English sentence. We will not consider: elliptical constructions, interjections, complex inversion, and other non-standard types of sentences. If you master the «skeleton» of an English sentence, this will help you easily build any phrases, even complex ones.

What an English sentence consists of: structure and grammar

Each sentence conveys a complete thought. For it to be clear and logical, it is necessary to correctly arrange the parts of the sentence. In any English sentence there are two mandatory elements:

The subject — the main performer of the action, answers the question «who?» or «what?».
The predicate — shows what the subject does, answers the question «what does (he/she/it) do?» or «what happened?».

The subject can be expressed by a pronoun (I, you, they, someone) or a noun (teacher, dog, apple, letter). It is usually placed at the beginning of the sentence.

The predicate is expressed by a verb (run, write, think, fall) and follows the subject, that is, in an English sentence it stands in the second position.

(Who?) They (what did they do?) thought. — They thought.

(Who?) The cat (what does it do?) is sleeping. — The cat is sleeping.

(What?) The ball (what will happen?) will fall. — The ball will fall.

The predicate is the key part of the sentence, since only it shows what is happening, has happened, or will happen. The English predicate may consist of two parts:

The main verb — the «main» verb that describes the action of the subject.
The auxiliary verb — helps to determine the tense, aspect, or modality.

In addition to the subject and predicate, a sentence may contain objects, attributes, and adverbial modifiers:

The object stands after the predicate and answers questions other than the nominative case.

The direct object — answers the questions «whom?», «what?».
The indirect object — answers the questions «to whom?», «to what?», «of what?».

I noticed a man with a dog. — I noticed (whom?) a man (with whom?) with a dog.

She is telling a story to the children. — She is telling (what?) a story (to whom?) to the children.

The attribute stands next to the subject or object and describes its properties. It answers the question «which?», «whose?».

I noticed a young man with a dog. — I noticed (which?) a young man with a dog.

My gray cat is sleeping on the sofa. — (Whose?) My (which?) gray cat is sleeping on the sofa.

The adverbial modifier may stand at the beginning or at the end of the sentence and indicates where? when? how? why? the action takes place.

My gray cat is sleeping on the sofa. — My gray cat is lying (where?) on the sofa.

Yesterday I met him in the park. — (When?) Yesterday I met him in the park.

He spoke quietly. — He spoke (how?) quietly.

Rules for building sentences in English

There are two main word orders in English: direct and inverted. Direct order is used in affirmative and negative sentences. Inverted order is used in interrogative sentences.

An English sentence differs from a Ukrainian one in word order. In Ukrainian, it is quite flexible:

Grandmother was baking a pie.
A pie was baking grandmother.
Was baking a pie grandmother.

As we can see, rearranging the words does not change the meaning of the sentence.

In English, these three variants will be translated in the same way: Grandmother was baking a cake.

The reason is simple: in an English sentence, the word order is fixed. Words cannot «jump» from place to place as is possible in Ukrainian. The English language is more precise and conservative; it does not like chaotic changes. Therefore, in each type of sentence there are its own unchanging patterns that should be followed.

Word order in affirmative and negative sentences in English

The direct word order in an affirmative sentence in English is as follows: in the first position is the subject, in the second — the predicate, in the third — the object. Sometimes the adverbial modifier may stand at the beginning.

In an English sentence, an auxiliary verb may appear with the main verb. As you already know, the auxiliary verb is part of the predicate, so even with it the word order remains direct.

Adverbial modifier	Subject (possibly with an attribute)	Predicate	Object (possibly with an attribute)	Adverbial modifier
Yesterday	I	studied	French words.	—
—	My brother	will buy	a new bicycle	tomorrow
In the morning	The teacher	explains	the lesson	clearly
—	Our neighbors	invited	us to the party	on Saturday

In an English negative sentence, the word order is also direct. To form a negation, the particle not is used, which corresponds to the Russian «не». In a negative sentence, an auxiliary verb is always present, since not is attached именно to it, and not to the main verb.

Adverbial modifier	Subject (possibly with an attribute)	Auxiliary verb + not	Main verb	Object (possibly with an attribute)	Adverbial modifier
Yesterday	I	did not	study	French words.	—
—	My brother	will not	buy	a new bicycle	tomorrow
In the morning	The teacher	does not	explain	the lesson	clearly
—	Our neighbors	did not	invite	us to the party	on Saturday

Word order in questions in English

In Ukrainian, the word order in a question and an affirmative sentence often coincides. We determine that it is a question only by intonation.

They play in the park. — They play in the park.
They play in the park? — Do they play in the park?

In English, an interrogative sentence has an inverted word order. This means that the subject and predicate swap places, but English does not deviate far from the direct order: only the auxiliary verb is moved to the first position, while the main verb remains after the subject.

Short answers

In spoken language, we usually answer a question briefly. For example, to the question «Do they work in the garden?» we are more likely to answer «Yes» or «No» rather than repeat the whole sentence:

«Yes, they work in the garden» / «No, they do not work in the garden».

A short answer is sufficient, and it is easy for the interlocutor to understand.

In English, short answers are also used, but you cannot simply say Yes/No — it would sound impolite or even rude. A correct English short answer contains the subject and the auxiliary verb, which match those in the question.

Do they play football? — Do they play football?

Answer: Yes, they do. / No, they don’t.

Has she finished her homework? — Has she finished her homework?

Answer: Yes, she has. / No, she hasn’t.

Having studied all these rules, you will be able to express your thoughts accurately, without fearing to mix up the word order in an English sentence. Try to create your own examples for each rule and say them aloud. Move gradually: from the main rules to individual exceptions, and we wish you success in learning!