word order

word order — phrase

1. the way words are arranged in a sentence, question, or clause — for example, in

1.phraseA2
Definition

the way words are arranged in a sentence, question, or clause — for example, in English, adjectives normally come before nouns, and a yes-no question places the helping verb before the subject.

Example

In English, yes-no questions use a different word order from statements.

word order for [question type] vs word order for [statement type]

The children often mix up the word order when they translate Korean sentences into English.

mix up the word order when translating

Common collocations
  • correct word order
  • wrong / incorrect word order
  • basic word order
  • change the word order
  • learn the word order
  • word order rules
  • word order in [language]
Synonyms
  • syntax

    more technical; refers to the whole system of sentence structure, while word order focuses specifically on the sequence of words

  • word arrangement

    a common paraphrase, less formal than word order

  • sentence structure

    broader term that includes both word order and grammatical relationships

Usage Note

Word order is treated as an uncountable noun. It is used to talk about the rules or patterns that control how words are placed in a sentence. You can say 'the word order of Language X' or 'word order rules'.

Common Mistakes

The word orders of English and Japanese are very different.
The word order of English and Japanese is very different.
Word order is uncountable and does not take a plural form.
We learned about the word order in class today.' (vague)
We learned about English adjective word order in class today.
Adding a language or structure makes the sentence clearer.

Etymology

Old EnglishOld FrenchLatinEnglish

The compound noun 'word order' was formed by combining the Old English word 'word' (speech unit) with the Old French/Middle English word 'ordre' (arrangement), which came from Latin 'ordo' (row, series). The phrase became common in 19th-century grammar books as linguists began describing how different languages arrange their sentence parts.

First known use

1872

1872, in the meaning defined above