Hard Facts

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 common phrasal verbs fit into sentences
  • Develop a natural feel for correct English structure
  • Improve both listening and grammar simultaneously
1
0
/13
to and live they slums in dying now escape are the Lakshmi Pratiba
Lakshmi and Pratiba are dying to escape the slums they live in now
Listen
2
0
/12
any improve want They on in to they way can situation their
They want to improve on their situation in any way they can
Listen
3
0
/9
they even shopkeeper money from Once a stole some
Once they even stole some money from a shopkeeper
Listen
4
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/17
police it to get however over the away had the money to They hand didn't with and
They didn't get away with it however and had to hand over the money to the police
Listen
5
0
/32
to live town Now that in shanty to a will have time the very if go are up face trying to hard they they they the leaving school fact difficult they cannot
Now they are trying to face up to the hard fact that if they cannot go to school they will have a very difficult time leaving the shanty town they live in
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 common phrasal verbs 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