Poor as a Churchmouse

Word Order Practice

Listen to each sentence and arrange the words in the correct order. Click on words to move them to your answer area.

Green checkmark (✓) means your current word order is correct so far. Red X (✗) means there's an error in the order.

Why Word Order Matters in English

Word order is crucial in English because it affects meaning. Unlike some languages that use case endings or particles to show word relationships, English relies heavily on word order to convey meaning.

This exercise helps you:

  • Internalize English sentence patterns
  • Recognize how idiomatic expressions fit into sentences
  • Develop a natural feel for correct English structure
  • Improve both listening and grammar simultaneously
1
0
/8
king is tonight like a Gerald Heart dining
Gerald Heart is dining like a king tonight
Listen
2
0
/24
him he like enjoy as to can it meal and A to is gold this much he dust as one as wants as big
A meal as big as this one is like gold dust to him and he wants to enjoy it as much as he can
Listen
3
0
/20
to because eating going on has is a is in however to soon He get cafe the move close he
He has to get a move on however because the cafe he is eating in is going to close soon
Listen
4
0
/20
as saw a but he today poor church mouse drop man piece as of Gerald a wealthy a is paper
Gerald is as poor as a church mouse but today he saw a wealthy man drop a piece of paper
Listen
5
0
/15
Gerald a it and it to picking up was shot giving there man Like the
Like a shot Gerald was there picking it up and giving it to the man
Listen
6
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/21
of didn't was the a and he paper bill important know piece That it the man it dropped since fit very
That fit the bill since it was a very important piece of paper and the man didn't know he dropped it
Listen
7
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/13
tip man Gerald his help a The gave and for was very wealthy
The man was very wealthy and gave Gerald a tip for his help
Listen
8
0
/20
food buy he tonight celebrating week cafe to was this tip enough is for a in big Gerald That and
That tip was big enough to buy Gerald food for a week and tonight he is celebrating in this cafe
Listen

Tips for Effective Practice

  1. Always listen to the audio first before attempting to order the words
  2. Pay attention to common patterns like subject-verb-object
  3. Notice how idiomatic expressions are positioned in sentences
  4. If you make a mistake, use it as a learning opportunity - try to understand why the correct order is different
  5. After completing each sentence, listen to the audio again while reading your correctly ordered sentence