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 practices 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!

1. I/in/London/live →.

Correct: I live in London

2. cats/three/have/we →.

Correct: We have three cats

3. German/speak/they/can →.

Correct: They can speak German

4. A lot/sleeps/my brother →.

Correct: My brother sleeps a lot

5. My father/house/is painting/our →.

Correct: My father is painting our house

6. blue/my car/is →.

Correct: My car is blue

7. aunt/her/talks/a lot →.

Correct: Her aunt talks a lot

8. work/hard/they →.

Correct: They work hard

9. can/sing/well/I →.

Correct: I can sing well

10. mother/my/is preparing/dinner →.

Correct: My mother is preparing dinner

11. brother/is/18/years/old/my →.

Correct: My brother is 18 years old

12. like/I/to dance →.

Correct: I like to dance

13. loves/she/parents/her →.

Correct: She loves her parents

14. teacher/his/smart/is/very →.

Correct: His teacher is very smart

15. test/hard/this/is →.

Correct: This test is hard

16. bed/my/big/is →.

Correct: My bed is big

17. school/their/far/is →.

Correct: Their school is far

18. she/in/California/lives →.

Correct: She lives in California

19. know/I/answer/the →.

Correct: I know the answer

20. good/students/we/are →.

Correct: We are good students

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Your score

KEEP PRACTICING — MORE EXERCISES FOR YOU:
More word order exercises:
Word Order Exercise 2 (B1/B2)

Related question formation exercises:
Do You Like / Would You Like? 2 (A2)
Do You Like / Would You Like? 1 (A1)
Question Words Exercise 1 (who, when, where, what)
How Questions Exercise 1 (How Long/How Much/How Often/How Well) (B1/B2)
Question Tags Exercise 1 (A2/B1)
Question Words Exercise 2 (Why/When/Where)
Question Tags Exercise 2 (B1/B2)
Question Tags Exercise 3 (B1/B2)
Browse all grammar exercises →