Word Order in Sentences

Review and Final Check

What you learned

A sentence needs the right words and the right order. Having all the words is only half the job.

To sort out a mixed-up group of words:

  1. Words that tell who or what go first.
  2. Words that tell what happens come next.
  3. Words that tell where or when go at the end.
  4. Capital letter at the front. Period at the end.

The big idea

Order does more than make a sentence sound right. It tells the reader who is doing the action.

SentenceWhat it means
The cat sees the bird.The cat is looking at the bird.
The bird sees the cat.The bird is looking at the cat.

Same six words. Two different meanings. The only thing that changed was the order.

Quick warm-up before the check

Put each group of words in order.

  1. “hot is soup the”
  2. “fast runs Leo”
  3. “fish the feeds Ava”

Answers

  1. “The soup is hot.”
  2. “Leo runs fast.”
  3. “Ava feeds the fish.”

Now take the final check below.

Where to go next

  • Naming Parts of Sentences: work with subjects on their own
  • Telling Parts of Sentences: work with predicates on their own
  • Telling Sentences and Periods: statements and how to punctuate them
  • Fixing Sentence Fragments: repair groups of words that are missing a part