Word Order and Question Forms
Languages put the parts of a sentence in different orders, and each has its own way of turning a statement into a question. Learn the order the new language uses and how it marks a question, and you can build sentences you have never heard.
What a learner can do afterwards
- State the usual order of subject, verb and object in the new language
- Turn a statement into a question in the new language
- Show one ordering the new language uses that English does not
1 · Read
Grammar lines words up. In English the line runs subject, verb, object. Dogs chase cats. Flip the line and sense flips or breaks.
The verb drives each sentence. Ask what is astir. In dogs chase cats the verb is chase. Questions often drive the verb first, as in do dogs chase cats.
New tongues park words elsewhere. Spot the verb first and mark its seat. In Japanese it sits last. Copy each fresh pattern with your own words, ten times over.
Learn one pattern at a turn. Build ten sentences on it. Log the order slips you repeat. Mending your top three faults lifts all you write.
Find the verb, learn where the new tongue parks it, and drill one pattern ten times.
2 · Watch
Take it off screen
Where it sits
8 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.