WORD ORDER

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WORD ORDER

• The term word order is used to refer to the
  order of elements in a sentence.
• Affirmative sentences
• subjectverbobjectother information.
• Someboby stole my car.
• Questions
• auxiliary verbsubjectmain verb other
  information
• Did you speak to him?

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• THE right TERMINOLOGY
• ? When we consider a sentence, the smallest
  elements are represented by a word. There are two
  types of words
• - lexical words such as nouns, verbs, adjectives,
  adverbs.
• function words such as articles, demonstratives,
  quantifiers, auxiliary verbs, prepositions,
  conjunctions, pronouns.

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• ? A sentence can be divided in smaller units and
  therefore considered at different levels such as
• clause level and phrase level

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The clause level

• If you cant wait any longer, just give her a
  call.
• Ill see oyu on Friday but all of us will be
  keeping our fingers crossed.

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The phrase level

• Noun phrases can contain one or more words.
• A rather old woman walked into my office
  yesterday.
• woman headword
• a rather old pre-modifier
• His recent book on global capitalism was a big
  success.
• his recent pre-modifier
• book headword
• on global capitalism post-modifier

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Complex noun phrases can include subordinate
clauses.

• The woman I told you about yesterday is coming
  now.

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Noun modifiers and number

• Many common ideas in English are expressed with a
  noun noun compound. In this structure the first
  noun describes or modifies the second.
• Milk chocolate (a kind of chocolate)
• A horse race (a kind of race)
• The airport bus (a bus that goes to the airport)
• Noun modifiers remain singular
• Shoe polish (polish for shoes)

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• However we can only say
• A feeling of disappointment (NOT a disappointment
  feeling)
• Cows milk (NOT cow milk)

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Verb phrases can consist of

• a single word main verb
• a multiword main verb
• one or more auxiliary verbs and a main verb
• two main verbs

• listen
• stood up
• has been waiting
• went to speak

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Preposition phrases are groups of words that
begin with a preposition and contain a noun
phrase.

• on
• with

• Noun phrase
• the corner
• with many additional features

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Adjective phrases contain an adjective, which may
follow one or more other adverbs.

• not very old
• really quite glamorous

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Adverb phrases contain an adverb, which may
follow one or more other adverbs.

• rather unwisely
• only once

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Adjectives

• Fact adjectives (they give us factual information
  about age, size, colour etc.)
• Opinion adjectives (they tell us what somebody
  thinks of something or somebody)
• A nice long summer holiday

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When we use more than one fact adjective

• 1 how big?
• 2 how old?
• 3. what colour?
• 4. where from?
• 5. what is it made of?
• NOUN
• Adj of size and length usually go before adj of
  shape and width (eg. A long narrow street)

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Adverbs Learning the rules by finding examples

• RULES
• A) adverbs of manner usually come after the verb
• B) sentence adverbs are often the first word in
  the sentence
• C) adverbs of place and adverb phrases usually
  come after the verb
• D) Adverbs of frequency usually come before the
  main verb
• EXAMPLES
• Unfortunately, Rosie did not get to the station
  in time
• when I was a boy, I would often sit and listen to
  my parents talking until late at night.
• A large white mouse sat under the table
• James Bond looked carefully round the room.

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• Adv of manner (carefully)gt after the verb
• Adv of place (here) gt after the verb
• Adv of time (soon)gt beginning or end of sentence
• Adv of frequency (often) gt before the main verb
  but after to be
• Adv of degree (hardly) gt before the adj or adv
  they modify
• Sentence adv (actually)gt usually the first word
  in the sentene
• THE MOST USUAL ORDER IS
• MANNER , PLACE TIME

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The order of multiple premodifiers

• Adverb adjective headword
• A really hot day
• Adjective noun headword
• Thick winter coat
• Adjective adjective headword
• Major industrial nation
• (descriptors before classifiers)
• Clear blue eyes
• (colour adjectives follow the other adjectives)

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• Meanings can vary depending on word order

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• Word order with verb object
• Whats the correct word order? ..\..\..\..\Desktop
  \mc-ck-order.htm

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Magazine headlines

• Find and correct the mistakes
• Fresh fruit and vegetables are good for you. Eat
  everyday five portions.
• Tv comic takes on holiday famous model but who
  is she?
• Rock legend invites to his wedding five hundred
  guests!
• City council builds up opposite the school a new
  leisure centre.
• Boy, 8, finds in the garden a tarantula.

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Choose the most natural word order

• She quietly was talking on the phone in her
  office.
• She was talking on the phone quietly in her
  office.
• She was talking quietly in her office on the
  phone.
• She was talking quietly on the phone in her
  office.
• The new computer system very badly worked at
  first.
• The new computer system worked at first very
  badly.
• Very badly the new computer system worked at
  first.
• The new computer system worked very badly at
  first.

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• He organizes always everybody very well.
• He always organizes everybody very well.
• He always very well organizes everybody.
• He always organizes very well everybody.
• They should repair it tomorrow quickly.
• They should tomorrow repair it quickly.
• They should repair it quickly tomorrow.
• They quickly should repair it tomorrow.

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• Are you working still in London?Are you still
  working in London?Are still you working in
  London?Still are you working in London?
• 6Choose the most natural word order.I haven't
  found yet a better job.I yet haven't found a
  better job.I haven't found a better job yet.I
  haven't found a better yet job.
• 7Choose the most natural word order.He's sorted
  out already all those files.He's sorted all those
  files already out.He's sorted already out all
  those files.He's already sorted out all those
  files.
• 8Choose the most natural word order.The post
  usually arrives on Monday late.The post usually
  on Monday arrives late.The post on Monday usually
  arrives late.The post usually arrives late on
  Monday.
• 9Choose the most natural word order.He can never
  explain how to do it very clearly.He can explain
  never how to do it very clearly.He can explain
  how to do it never very clearly.He can explain
  how never to do it very clearly.
• 10Choose the most natural word order.The planning
  meetings don't start on time usually now Tony is
  running them.The planning meetings don't start on
  time now usually Tony is running them.The
  planning meetings don't usually start on time now
  Tony is running them.The planning meetings don't
  usually on time start now Tony is running them.
• 11Choose the most natural word order.I have to
  every morning check exactly how many orders we've
  received.I have to check exactly every morning
  how many orders we've received.I have to check
  exactly how many orders we've received every
  morning.I have to check exactly how many orders
  every morning we've received.
• 12Choose the most natural word order.We worked to
  get that contract very hard.We worked very hard
  to get that contract.We very hard worked to get
  that contract.Very hard we worked to get that
  contract.
• 13Choose the most natural word order.We discussed
  very briefly it over lunch.We very briefly
  discussed it over lunch.We discussed it very
  briefly over lunch.We it discussed very briefly
  over lunch.
• 14Choose the most natural word order.He tried to
  sell us a Korean cheap component.He tried to sell
  us a component cheap Korean .He tried to sell us
  a cheap Korean component.He tried to sell us a
  Korean cheap component.
• 15Choose the most natural word order.This model
  is years already out of date.This model is
  already years out of date.Already this model is
  years out of date .This model is years out
  already of date.
• 16Choose the most natural word order.They are
  relocating next year the whole production plant
  to California.They are relocating to California
  the whole production plant next year.They are
  relocating the whole production plant to
  California next year.They are next year
  relocating the whole production plant to
  California.
• 17Choose the most natural word order.He never
  very carefully reads my sales reports.He never
  reads my sales reports very carefully.He never
  reads very carefully my sales reports.He reads
  never very carefully my sales reports.
• 18Choose the most natural word order.He to Paris
  four times went last month.He went to Paris four
  times last month.He went last month to Paris four
  times.He last month went to Paris four times.
• 19Choose the most natural word order.I've been on
  this working all morning.I've been on this all
  morning working.I've been working on this all
  morning.I've all morning been working on this.
• 20Choose the most natural word order.I think
  that's a very point important.I think that's a
  point very important.I think that's a very
  important point.I very think that's an important
  point.

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Subterranean homesick alien

• The breath of the morning I keep forgetting
• The smell of the warm summer air
• I live in a town where you cant smell a thing,
  you watch your feet for cracks in the pavement
• Up above aliens hover making home movies for the
  folks back home, of all these wierd creatures who
  lock up their spirits, drill holes in themselves
  and live for their secrets. Theyre all up-tied.