The order of Words
THE ORDER OF WORDS
1. Direct Questions:- "When will you go?" I said to him.
- "Why have you come?" I said to him.
2. Indirect Questions:
- I asked him when he would go.
- I asked him why he had come.
3. Note the position of fill and both in the following:
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All my books
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Both my brothers
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All this work
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Both these boys
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All that money
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All the
books
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All your friends
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Both his brothers
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All their friends
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Both these
books
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Both our books
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Both the boys
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Note: All & Both come before & not after my, his, her, its, our, your, their, this, that, these, those, and the.
4. The comes before & not after whole:
- The whole day (all the day long)
5. One of my friends (Not: my one friend) or A friend of mine
- Some of my books (Not: my some books)
- These things of mine (Not: my these things)
- They will all go.
- They have both gone.
- We may all go.
- You are both going.
- We were all pleased.
- They are both injured.
It is safer to use the form: all of us, both of us, all of you, both of you, all of them, both of them.
7. Note the position of not in the following sentences.
- I should not have gone (Not: I should have not gone)
- He might not have played (Not: He might have not played)
8. My friend and I went. (Put the 1st Person last)
- You and your brother must go. (Put the 2 nd Person first)
- You, your brother and I can go. (2nd Person, 3rd Person, 1st Person)
9. Note the question order of words in the following cases:
- No sooner did he see me, than he ran away.
- Scarcely had the game started, when we scored a goal.
- Hardly had I taken my seat when the bus started.
- Never before had I seen such wonderful scenery.
- You're a dunce and so is he. He likes cricket and so do I.
- You're not a dunce and neither is he. (and nor is he)
10. Note the position of only, at least, not only, neither, either:
- He scored only two runs: We must score at least one hundred runs.
- He speaks not only Urdu but also Punjabi.
- He likes neither hockey nor football.
- You must go either today or tomorrow.
- Note: He read in the newspaper that a train accident had occurred.
- Not: He read that a train accident had occurred in the newspaper.
11. The Relative Pronouns who, which, whom and whose must be placed as close as possible to the word to which they refer:
- My brother, who is older than I am, is in Class X.
- Not: My brother is in Class X who is older than I am.
- The car which I was driving ran into a tree.
- Not: The car ran into a tree which I was driving.
- The boy, whose book was lost, got punished.
- Not: The boy got punished whose book was lost.
12 . I gave him a book (Not: I gave a book to him)
- I taught him a lesson (Not: I taught a lesson to him)
- I showed him the photo (Not: I showed the photo to him).
13. If the subject of the sentence is a Pronoun (I, he, she, it we, you, they) do not separate it from the Verb by putting a Participle Phrase in between:
- Being a dunce, he failed.
- Not: He, being a dunce, failed.
- Seeing the robbers, he hid himself.
- Not: He, seeing the robbers, hid .
- Feeling tired, I lay down.
- Not: I, feeling tired, lay down.
- I told him to finish his work quickly.
- Not: I told him to quickly finish his work.
