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