Chapter 8 — Word order and adjective placement

The essentials in four points:

• The adjective precedes the noun: strong claws, never claws strong.
• Several adjectives follow the order opinion → age → material: an old wooden chest.
• The adverb goes before the verb it modifies or at the end of the sentence: recently published a study, not published recently a study.
• In an indirect question, normal subject–verb order: what they thought, not what did they think.

English word order is rigid — and that is good news: every deviation is a detectable error. Three zones concentrate the questions: adjective placement, adverb placement, and subject–verb order in indirect questions.

1. The adjective precedes the noun. its strong claws, never its claws strong. Several adjectives follow the order: opinion → size → age → shape → colour → origin → material: an old wooden chest (age before material).

2. The adverb never splits verb + object. ✘ have published recently a study → ✔ have recently published a study; ✘ understood immediately everything → ✔ understood everything immediately. Safe positions: before the lexical verb, or clause-final.

3. Indirect questions restore affirmative order. After ask, wonder, know, explain what/why/how…, no inversion and no auxiliary do: asked the students what they thought (never what did they think).

4. Two constructions to know. Enough goes after the adjective (significant enough) but before the noun (enough time). Dummy It announces a clause: It is unknown why some birds migrate at night.