A Force to be Reckoned With.

Some languages are easy. Some languages are hard. English happens to be both, so it pays to remind struggling learners to count their blessings as well: there is a superpower to help them.

English may have an enormous vocabulary and seemingly chaotic spelling and pronunciation, but it doesn't have complicated cases like German and some other languages. Above all, English has a superpower: its amazingly simple basic word order.

Word order in English makes any sentence resemble a scene from a play or a movie. There's always a protagonist who's linked to a state or an action. There can be other players. There's a background of place and time. It seems all too obvious, so why is English special?

What makes English stand out is that these elements appear in exactly that order. Who do(es) what, who else is involved, and what's the setting? Even the background behaves logically, in the order of the alphabet: P comes before T, so it's Place before Time. And compound sentences are essentially series of such logical scenes linked together.

It makes for the simplest of mnemonics: SVOPT. First, there's the Star of the show, followed by its action expressed through Verbs. Next are any Other players. Place and Time form the setting. 

However, SVOPT is only a simplified mnemonic. The actual superpower formula is SvVOPT because the V in SVOPT stands for Verbs - plural. That's the standard way for English sentences and verb forms: with a helping verb. Sentences with only one verb form are the exception!

Still, course books usually start with the exception: present simple tense in affirmative sentences. It seems simple enough, with only one verb form, but it doesn't help at all. Why not? Because it shows the exception instead of the rule.

As soon as questions and negatives enter the stage, there are at least two verb forms at play even in simple tense sentences. All other tenses and verb constructs also show at least two verb forms. So let's start with the rule instead of the exception. Start with present continuous tense and start with SvVOPT.

SvVOPT shows the standard word order as well as the basic verb structure in English. Combining those two essential features, it is a true superpower and a force to be reckoned with. May the SvVOPT be with you!

SvVOPT rules!

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GrammarBob's continuing mission: to boldly go where no grammar has gone before and make essential English grammar easy for all.