Word Order
Some languages are very relaxed about the order that words can appear in a sentence. This is true of languages such as Polish, where the word endings are indicative of their part of speech. And you may have heard French speakers talk about the sky blue, rather than the blue sky.
English likes a more fixed word order, although the rules can be broken for effect.
Most active sentences start with a subject and then a verb. There are several patterns which are common:
Subject Verb: The dog barked.
Subject Verb Object The man opened the email.
Subject Verb Complement The man is tired ( information about the subject)
Subject Verb Adverbial The man went to London, yesterday morning.(How, where,when)
Subject Verb Object Object He gave his girlfriend a kiss.
Subject Verb Object Complement She got her shoes wet.( information about object)
Subject Verb Object Adverbial He loaded the software onto the system.
These are the most common, however the adverbial list of how, where and when, are unusual if using all three together. In that case it would be neater to put the when at the front.
So: I flew quickly, from London to New York on Monday 26th February looks much better as: On Monday 26th of February, I flew quickly from London to New York.
You will have a good feel for what is natural. Your students don't always:-)
English likes a more fixed word order, although the rules can be broken for effect.
Most active sentences start with a subject and then a verb. There are several patterns which are common:
Subject Verb: The dog barked.
Subject Verb Object The man opened the email.
Subject Verb Complement The man is tired ( information about the subject)
Subject Verb Adverbial The man went to London, yesterday morning.(How, where,when)
Subject Verb Object Object He gave his girlfriend a kiss.
Subject Verb Object Complement She got her shoes wet.( information about object)
Subject Verb Object Adverbial He loaded the software onto the system.
These are the most common, however the adverbial list of how, where and when, are unusual if using all three together. In that case it would be neater to put the when at the front.
So: I flew quickly, from London to New York on Monday 26th February looks much better as: On Monday 26th of February, I flew quickly from London to New York.
You will have a good feel for what is natural. Your students don't always:-)