Chinese word order: Subject + Verb + Object
Chinese sentences follow Subject + Verb + Object, the same core order as English: 我 (I) + 学习 (study) + 汉语 (Chinese) = 我学习汉语. What differs from English is everything around the verb — time, place and manner all come before it, never after.
Structure
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Subject + Verb + Object
The bare skeleton of a Chinese sentence.
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Subject + Time + Place + Verb + Object
Everything that frames the action goes before the verb.
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Subject + Time + 跟/给/在 + … + Verb + Object
Prepositional phrases sit before the verb too.
How it works
The good news for English speakers: the core of a Chinese sentence is ordered exactly like English. 我喝茶 is I drink tea, word for word. There is no conjugation, no agreement, and no case marking to get wrong.
The part that has to be relearned is the frame. English puts time and place after the verb ("I study Chinese at home in the evening"); Chinese puts them before it, in the order time → place → verb. So the Chinese sentence is literally I in-the-evening at-home study Chinese: 我晚上在家学习汉语。
Two smaller rules follow from the same principle. Chinese moves from big to small — 2026年7月30日, 中国北京 — and any prepositional phrase (跟朋友 with friends, 给妈妈 for mum, 用筷子 with chopsticks) also lands before the verb rather than trailing after the object.
The one thing that does follow the verb is a complement describing the action itself — how well, how fast, how many times. That is a separate pattern; see 的 / 得 / 地 and result complements.
Examples
Quick drill — 5 questions
Five fill-in-the-gap questions built from the example sentences above. No sign-up, no score kept — just a check that the pattern has actually landed.
Choose the word that belongs in the gap:
Common mistakes
| ✗ Wrong | ✓ Right | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 我学习汉语在家。 | 我在家学习汉语。 | Place goes before the verb. Putting 在家 at the end is the single most common English-speaker error in Chinese. |
| 我去北京明天。 | 我明天去北京。 / 明天我去北京。 | Time comes before the verb, and it may also move to the very front for emphasis — but never to the end. |
| 我吃饭跟朋友。 | 我跟朋友吃饭。 | Prepositional phrases behave like time and place: they frame the verb, so they precede it. |
Word order — Subject + Verb + Object — frequently asked questions
Is Chinese SVO like English?
Yes — the core order is Subject + Verb + Object, the same as English. 我喝茶 (wǒ hē chá) is literally "I drink tea". The difference is that Chinese puts time, place and manner before the verb, where English puts them after it.
Where do time and place go in a Chinese sentence?
Both go before the verb, in the order time then place: 我晚上在家学习汉语 (wǒ wǎnshang zài jiā xuéxí Hànyǔ) — "I in-the-evening at-home study Chinese". Time can also move to the very front of the sentence for emphasis, but neither time nor place may come after the verb.
Does Chinese change the verb for past or plural?
No. Chinese verbs never conjugate — 我去, 他去, 我们去 all use the same 去. Time is carried by time words (昨天 yesterday, 明天 tomorrow) and by aspect particles such as 了 and 过, not by the verb's form.
Can I move things around for emphasis in Chinese?
Yes, within limits. Time words and topics can move to the front (明天我去北京), and the 把 construction moves the object before the verb. But the verb-then-object core stays fixed, and nothing that frames the verb ever moves behind it.
Next, learn
Put it to work
Drill the vocabulary for this level on the HSK 1 word list, rebuild scrambled sentences in the Sentence Builder, read graded stories that use this pattern in the story library, or follow a step-by-step route through the whole site in Guided Learning Paths.