General rule

The basic word order in English is called SVO. English grammar is also called the SVO grammar. Simply put it means

Subject – Verb – Object

For example, take the following sentence:

I eat apples at school every day.

The main part of any sentence is the action word, technically called the verb.

In this sentence, the Action word is eat.

The action is performed by “I”. So, “I” is the Actor.

The action “eat” falls on apples, because ‘apple is eaten. So, I call ‘apples’ the Receiver of the action.

Therefore, the English word order is Actor-Action-Receiver.

So, we have:

• I read books.
• She drinks coffee.
• It eats fruits.
• He plays cricket.
• They smoke weed.
• We teach English.
• You learn music.

Let’s add time to this sentence:

• I read books every day.

I can also say

• Every day I read books

But I cannot put everyday between the AAR set. For instance I can’t say,

• I everyday read books

Or

• I read everyday books. (This changes the meaning of the sentence.)

I can also add a place to it:

• I read books every day in the park.

I can also say this in the following ways:

• I read books every day in the park.
• Every day I read books in the park.
• In the park, I read books every day.
• Every day in the park I read books.

Note, that we can change the position of the Time and the Place as we like. But the “Actor-Action-Receiver” set remains undisturbed. The word order doesn’t change. They will still be grammatically correct.

Of course the implication will change. In other words, they are specific answers to specific questions.

Q. What do you do every day in the park?

A. I read books every day in the park.

Q. What do you do every day in the park (not at the bus stop)?

A. In the park, I read books every day.

Q. How often do you read books in the park?

A. I read books in the park every day .

Q. When do you read books?

A. Every day, in the park, I read books  .

(Of course, in the park is an unnecessary information, but that doesn’t make the statement grammatically wrong.)

Passive voice

The word order here is Receiver-Action-Actor (if desired. Actor is normally avoided.)

The passive voice is used in specific cases only.

To describe a process or procedure

You describe a procedure of, let’s say, making tea like this:

1. Water is taken in a saucepan.
2. Milk and sugar are added.
3. The pan is placed on the fire and allowed to boil.

Please note that when you give instructions you say:

1. Take water in a saucepan.
2. Add milk and sugar.
3. Place the pan on fire and allow it to boil.

When the actor is unknown

So, you say

• The man was killed.

Because you don’t know who killed him. You just see a dead body with a dagger through his heart.

When the actor is not important or you don’t want to disclose the actor

So, you say,

• The report was completed.

Obviously it was completed by the appropriate person who was in charge of completing the report. The identity of the person isn’t important.

When the actor is understood

So, you say

• The autopsy was done this morning.

Obviously, it wasn’t done by the sweeper or the police officer, but by a pathologist. It is understood so not stated explicitly.

When the actors are people in general

• Books can be borrowed from the library till 3 in the afternoon.

You don’t need to say, “The members can borrow books…”

Questions

In questions you change the word order. Let’s look at the progression from the Statement form to the Yes/No Questions form to the Wh— Question form. This transition will help you form questions without any error or confusion.

Statement:                        He is coming to the station.

(Note the Actor-Action-Receiver order)

Yes/No question:     Is he coming to the station?

(Note how He is changes its order and becomes Is he)

WH— question:                 Why is he coming to the station?

(Note how merely by adding the question word, here it is “Why”, the close-ended Y/N question becomes open-ended)