ENGLISH WORD ORDER EXERCISE 1 (ESL)

level: Beginner (A1/A2)

English word order is relatively fixed compared to many other languages — getting it wrong can make a sentence sound unnatural or confusing even if every word is correct. This beginner-level exercise practises the fundamental SVO (subject-verb-object) pattern. This is exercise 1 of 2 in this series.

GRAMMAR REVIEW! Basic English word order

English word order is relatively fixed. The standard pattern is:

Subject → Verb → Object (SVO)
She likes coffee. / We visited Paris.

Adverbs of frequency (always, usually, often, never) go before the main verb but after be:
She always drinks tea. / He is never late.

Place and time expressions usually go at the end: place → time:
I worked in Paris last year.

Adjectives go before the noun they describe:
a beautiful old house (not: a house old beautiful)

Common error:
✗ Likes she coffee. ✓ She likes coffee.

READY TO PRACTICE? LET’S GO!

Put the words in the correct order to make a grammatical English sentence.
Example: plays/guitar/James
ANSWER: James plays guitar.
Remember:
1) These are all STATEMENTS, not QUESTIONS.
2) Do not put a period → "." → at the end of your answer. The period appears after each sentence automatically.
3) Capitalization counts!

1. I/in/London/live → .

2. cats/three/have/we → .

3. German/speak/they/can → .

4. A lot/sleeps/my brother → .

5. My father/house/is painting/our → .

6. blue/my car/is → .

7. aunt/her/talks/a lot → .

8. work/hard/they → .

9. can/sing/well/I → .

10. mother/my/is preparing/dinner → .

11. brother/is/18/years/old/my → .

12. like/I/to dance → .

13. loves/she/parents/her → .

14. teacher/his/smart/is/very → .

15. test/hard/this/is → .

16. bed/my/big/is → .

17. school/their/far/is → .

18. she/in/California/lives → .

19. know/I/answer/the → .

20. good/students/we/are → .

Word order exercise 2
More grammar exercises