subject–object–verb word order

{{Language word order frequency}}

Among natural languages with a word order preference, SOV is the most common type (followed by subject–verb–object; the two types account for more than 87% of natural languages with a preferred order).{{cite book |last=Crystal |first=David |author-link=David Crystal |title=The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language |edition=2nd |year=1997 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=0-521-55967-7}}

Languages that have SOV structure include

• most Indo-Iranian languages (Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindustani, Kurdish, Marathi, Nepali, Odia, Pāli, Pashto, Persian, Punjabi, Sindhi, Sinhala, Zaza)
• Ainu
• Akkadian
• Armenian
• Assyrian
• Aymara
• Basque
• Burushaski
• Cherokee
• Cushitic languages (Afar, Beja, Bilen, Oromo, Saho, Sidama, Somali)
• Dakota
• Dravidian languages (Brahui, Duruwa, Gondi, Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Tulu)
• Dogon languages
• Elamite
• Ethio-Semitic languages (Amharic, Tigre, Tigrinya)
• Gothic
• Ancient Greek
• Haida
• Hajong
• Hittite
• Hopi
• Ijoid languages
• Itelmen
• Japonic languages (Japanese, Hachijo, Ryukyuan)
• Korean
• Classical Latin
• Lakota
• Mande languages
• Meitei
• Mongolian
• Navajo
• Newar
• Nivkh
• Nobiin
• Omaha-Ponca
• Omotic languages
• Quechua
• Samoyedic languages
• Senufo languages
• Seri
• Sicilian
• Sunuwar
• Sumerian
• nearly all Tibeto-Burman languages, including Lhasa Tibetan and Burmese
• Tungusic languages (Evenki, Manchu)
• Turkic languages
• almost all Uto-Aztecan languages
• Yukaghir
• Zarma
• virtually all Caucasian languages.

Standard Chinese is generally SVO but common constructions with verbal complements require SOV or OSV. Some Romance languages are SVO, but when the object is an enclitic pronoun, word order allows for SOV (see the examples below). German and Dutch are considered SVO in conventional typology and SOV in generative grammar. They can be considered SOV but with V2 word order as an overriding rule for the finite verb in main clauses, which results in SVO in some cases and SOV in others. For example, in German, a basic sentence such as "{{Lang|de|Ich sage etwas über Karl}}" ("I say something about Karl") is in SVO word order. Non-finite verbs are placed at the end, however, since V2 only applies to the finite verb: "{{Lang|de|Ich will etwas über Karl sagen}}" ("I want to say something about Karl"). In a subordinate clause, the finite verb is not affected by V2, and also appears at the end of the sentence, resulting in full SOV order: "{{Lang|de|Ich sage, dass Karl einen Gürtel gekauft hat.}}" (Word-for-word: "I say that Karl a belt bought has.")

A rare example of SOV word order in English is "I (subject) thee (object) wed (verb)" in the wedding vow "With this ring, I thee wed."Andreas Fischer, "'With this ring I thee wed': The verbs to wed and to marry in the history of English". Language History and Linguistic Modelling: A Festschrift for Jacek Fisiak on his 60th Birthday. Ed. Raymond Hickey and Stanislaw Puppel. Trends in Linguistics, Studies and Monographs 101 (Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 1997), pp.467-81

SOV languages have a strong tendency to use postpositions rather than prepositions, to place auxiliary verbs after the action verb, to place genitive noun phrases before the possessed noun, to place a name before a title or honorific ("James Uncle" and "Johnson Doctor" rather than "Uncle James" and "Doctor Johnson") and to have subordinators appear at the end of subordinate clauses. They have a weaker but significant tendency to place demonstrative adjectives before the nouns they modify. Relative clauses preceding the nouns to which they refer usually signals SOV word order, but the reverse does not hold: SOV languages feature prenominal and postnominal relative clauses roughly equally. SOV languages also seem to exhibit a tendency towards using a time–manner–place ordering of adpositional phrases.

In linguistic typology, one can usefully distinguish two types of SOV languages in terms of their type of marking:

1. dependent-marking has case markers to distinguish the subject and the object, which allows it to use the variant OSV word order without ambiguity. This type usually places adjectives and numerals before the nouns they modify, and is exclusively suffixing without prefixes. SOV languages of this first type include Japanese and Tamil.
2. head-marking distinguishes subject and object by affixes on the verb rather than markers on the nouns. It also differs from the dependent-marking SOV language in using prefixes as well as suffixes, usually for tense and possession. Adjectives in this type are much more verb-like than in dependent-marking SOV languages, and hence they usually follow the nouns. In most SOV languages with a significant level of head-marking or verb-like adjectives, numerals and related quantifiers (like "all", "every") also follow the nouns they modify. Languages of this type include Navajo and Seri.

In practice, of course, the distinction between these two types is far from sharp. Many SOV languages are substantially double-marking and tend to exhibit properties intermediate between the two idealised types above.

Many languages that have shifted to SVO word order from earlier SOV retain (at least to an extent) the properties: for example, the Finnish language (high usage of postpositions etc.)

SOV word order is generally found in the Afroasiatic members of the Ethiopian language area (the Ethio-Semitic, Cushitic and Omotic languages).

{{interlinear|indent=2

|top= Anu makiina liyo.

| Anu makiina liyo

| I car have-1SG.IND

| Subject Object Verb|style3= font-variant: small-caps;

| I have a car.}}

{{fs interlinear|indent=2

|top= ተስፋዬ በሩን ዘጋው።

| ተስፋዬ በሩን ዘጋው

| Täsəfayē bärun zägaw

| Tesfaye {the door} closed

| Subject Object Verb|style4=font-variant: small-caps;

| Tesfaye closed the door.}}

{{interlinear|indent=2

|top= Ayyantu buna dhugti.

| Ayyantu buna dhugti

| Ayantu coffee drinks

| Subject Object Verb|style3= font-variant: small-caps;

| Ayantu drinks coffee.}}

==== Somali ====

Somali generally uses the subject–object–verb structure when speaking formally.

{{interlinear

| indent = 2

| top = Anaa albaabka furay.|Anaa albaab-ka furay|I door-DEF opened|Subject Object Verb

| style3 = font-variant: small-caps;|I opened the door

}}

==== Tigre ====

{{fs interlinear|indent=2

|top= ህቱ እግል ልሽቀ መጽኣ።

| ህቱ {እግል ልሽቀ} መጽኣ

| Htu {ʾəgl ləšqä} mäṣʾa.

| He {to work} PST-come-3SG

| Subject Object Verb|style4=font-variant: small-caps;

| He came to work.}}

==== Tigrinya ====

{{fs interlinear|indent=2

|top= ዳኒኤል ኩዑሶ ቀሊዑ።

| ዳኒኤል ኩዑሶ ቀሊዑ

| Daniʼēl kuʻuso qäliʻu

| Daniel ball {he kicked}| Subject Object Verb|style4=font-variant: small-caps;

| Daniel kicked the ball.}}

{{interlinear|indent=2

|top= Táání miishsh-áa (7e)kk-áas.

| Táání miishsh-áa (7e)kk-áas

| I money-ABS.M.SG take-PFV.1SG

| Subject Object Verb

| style3 = font-variant: small-caps;|I made money.}}

The following example is from Hokkaido Ainu.

{{fs interlinear|indent=2

|top= {{lang|ain|クコㇿ　アチャ　インド　エン　オマン。}}

| {{lang|ain|クコㇿ}} {{lang|ain|アチャ}} {{lang|ain|インド}} {{lang|ain|エン}} {{lang|ain|オマン。 }}

| Ku-kor aca Indo en oman| 1SG-have father India ALL go| Subject {} Object {} Verb|style4= font-variant: small-caps;

| My father ({{lit|father that I have}}) goes to India.}}

Basque in short sentences, usually, subject or agent–object–verb; in long sentences, usually, subject or agent-verb-objects:

{{interlinear|indent=2

|top= Enekok sagarra ekarri du.

| Enekok sagarra ekarri du

| {Eneko (+ERG)} {the apple} {brought (to bring)} {AUX has}

| Agent Object Verb {}|style3= font-variant: small-caps;

| Eneko has brought the apple}}

{{interlinear|indent=2

|top= Eneritzek eskatu du inork irakurri nahi ez zuen liburua

| Eneritzek eskatu du {+ + +}

| {Eneritz (+ERG)} {asked for} {AUX has} {+ + +}

| Parts Agent Verb Objects|style3= font-variant: small-caps;

| Eneritz requested the book nobody wanted to read}}

The Dravidian languages commonly exhibit or prefer SOV order.

{{fs interlinear|indent=2

|top= ನಾನು ಮನೆ ಕಟ್ಟಿದೆನು.

| ನಾನು ಮನೆ ಕಟ್ಟಿದೆನು

| Naanu mane kaTTidenu

| I {the house} built

| Subject Object Verb |style4= font-variant: small-caps;

| I built the house.}}

==== Malayalam ====

{{fs interlinear|indent=2

|top= ഞാൻ പുസ്തകം എടുത്തു.

| ഞാൻ പുസ്തകം എ എടുത്തു

| ñān pustakam̥ (-e) eṭuttu

| I {(the) book} ACC took

| Subject Object {} Verb|style4= font-variant: small-caps;

| I took the book.}}

• Pustakam̥ + -e = pustakatte (പുസ്തകത്തെ)

==== Tamil ====

Tamil being a strongly head-final language, the basic word-order is SOV. However, since it is highly inflected, word order is flexible and is used for pragmatic purposes. That is, fronting a word in a sentence adds emphasis on it; for instance, a VSO order would indicate greater emphasis on the verb, the action, than on the subject or the object. However, such word-orders are highly marked, and the basic order remains SOV.

{{fs interlinear|indent=2

|top= நான் பெட்டியை திறப்பேன்.

| நான் பெட்டியைத் திறப்பேன்.

| Nān peṭṭi-yai tiṟa-pp-ēn.

| I-NOM box-ACC open-FUT-1SG

| Subject Object Verb|style4= font-variant: small-caps;

| I will open the box.}}

{{fs interlinear|indent=2

|top= నేను ఇంటికి వెళ్తున్నాను.

| నేను ఇంటికి వెళ్తున్నాను

| Nēnu iṇṭi-ki veḷ-tunnā-nu

| {I-NOM} {home-DAT} {go-PRES-1SG}

| Subject Object Verb|style4= font-variant: small-caps;

| I am going home.}}

The Georgian language is not extremely rigid with regards to word order, but is typically either SOV or SVO.

{{fs interlinear|indent=2

|top= მე ლექსი დავწერე.

| მე ლექსი დავწერე.

| me leksi davc'ere

| I poem {[I]wrote}

| Subject Object Verb|style4= font-variant: small-caps;

| I wrote (a) poem.}}

SOV word order is quite common among Indo-European languages, leading to a common hypothesis that this reflects the original preferred word order of the ancestral Proto-Indo-European language. However, the question remains unsettled.

Albanian has free word order, but generally prefers SVO. SOV occurs only in poetic language.

{{interlinear|indent=2

|top= Agimi librin e mori.

| Agimi librin {e mori}

| Agimi {the book} took

| Subject Object Verb|style3= font-variant: small-caps;

| Agimi took the book. (It was Agimi who took the book)}}

Armenian generally prefers SOV.

{{fs interlinear|indent=2

|top= Իմ անունը Շուշանիկ է։

| Իմ անունը Շուշանիկ է

| Im anunə Šušanik ē

| my name Shushanik is

| {} Subject Object Verb|style4= font-variant: small-caps;

| My name is Shushanik.}}

Linguistic consensus holds that the Proto-Germanic language had free word order but preferred SOV. While some Germanic languages (including English and most North Germanic languages) have transitioned to SVO, SOV remains a feature of some major modern Germanic languages, including German and Dutch. However, these modern SOV Germanic languages also exhibit V2 word order, which supersedes the "default" SOV such that many sentences are rendered subject-verb-object.

Dutch is SOV combined with V2 word order. The non-finite verb (infinitive or participle) remains in final position, but the finite (i.e. inflected) verb is moved to the second position. Simple verbs look like SVO, non-finite verbs (participles, infinitives) and compound verbs follow this pattern:

{{interlinear|indent=2|glossing3=yes

|top= Ik wil je helpen.

| Ik wil je helpen

| I {want to} you help

| subject FIN.verb object NFIN.verb

| I want to help you.}}

Pure SOV order is found in subordinate clauses:

{{interlinear|indent=2|glossing3=yes

|top= Ik zei dat ik je wil helpen.

| Ik zei dat ik je wil helpen

| I said that I you want {to help}

| subject FIN.verb SUBORD.CONJ subject object FIN.verb NFIN.verb

| I said that I want to help you.}}

German is SOV combined with V2 word order. The non-finite verb (infinitive or participle) remains in final position, but the finite (i.e. inflected) verb is moved to the second position. Simple verbs look like SVO, compound verbs follow this pattern:

{{interlinear|indent=2

|top= Er hat einen Apfel gegessen.

| Er hat einen Apfel gegessen.

| He has an apple eaten.

| Subject Auxiliary {} Object Verb|style3= font-variant: small-caps;

| He has eaten an apple.}}

The word order changes also depending on whether the phrase is a main clause or a dependent clause. In dependent clauses, the word order is always entirely SOV (cf. also Inversion):

{{interlinear|indent=2

|top= Weil Horst einen Apfel gegessen hat.

| Weil Horst einen Apfel gegessen hat.

| Because Horst an apple eaten has.

| Conjunction Subject {} Object Verb Auxiliary|style3= font-variant: small-caps;

| Because Horst has eaten an apple.}}

The Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language, had free word order, but SOV constructions were common.

{{fs interlinear|indent=2

|top= 𐌲𐌿𐌼𐌰 𐌵𐌹𐌽𐍉𐌽 𐍆𐍂𐌹𐌾𐍉𐌸.

| 𐌲𐌿𐌼𐌰 𐌵𐌹𐌽𐍉𐌽 𐍆𐍂𐌹𐌾𐍉𐌸.

| Guma qinon frijoþ.

| man woman loves.

| Subject Object Verb|style4= font-variant: small-caps;

| The man loves the woman.}}

==== Greek (Classical) ====

Ancient Greek had free word order but generally preferred SOV sentences:

{{fs interlinear|indent=2

|top= ὁ ἀνὴρ τὸν παĩδα φιλεῖ.

| ὁ ανήρ τὸν παĩδα φιλεῖ.

| ho anḗr tòn paîda phileî

| The man the child loves.

| {} Subject {} Object Verb|style4= font-variant: small-caps;

| The man loves the child.}}

This is distinct from Modern Greek, where SVO is preferred.

Vedic Sanskrit, the oldest known of the Indo-Aryan languages, was an inflected language and very flexible in word order, allowing all possible word combinations. Its descendant, Classical Sanskrit, shared this feature but generally preferred SOV sentences.

{{fs interlinear|indent=2

|top= तत्त्वमसि

| तत्त् (त्)वम सि

| tát t(ú)vam ási

| that you are

| Subject Object Verb|style4= font-variant: small-caps;

| That you are.}}

Most later Indo-Aryan languages continue to prefer SOV word order, for example:

Bengali:

{{fs interlinear|indent=2|italics3=yes|glossing4=yes

|top= আমি ভাত খাই

| আমি ভাত খাই

| ami bʰat kʰai

| ami bhat khai

| I.SUBJ rice.OBJ eat.PRES

| Subject Object Verb|style5= font-variant: small-caps;

| I eat rice.}}

Hajong:

{{interlinear|indent=2

|top= Moi hugre'mre' khasei.

| Moi hugre'm re' kha sei.

| I guava ACC eat PAST.IND

| Subject {} Object {} Verb|style3= font-variant: small-caps;

| I ate the guava.}}

re is a particle that indicates the accusative case and 'sei' indicates past tense declarative. Here, e is pronounced as the 'i' in 'girl' and 'ei' is pronounced as the 'ay' in 'say'.

Hindi:

{{fs interlinear|indent=2

|top= मैं सेब खाता हूँ।

| मैं सेब {खाता हूँ}

| main seb {khaataa hun}

| I apple eat.{{gcl|PRES|simple present}}.M

| Subject Object Verb|style4= font-variant: small-caps;

| I eat apples.}}

Marathi:

{{fs interlinear|indent=2

|top= तो बियाणे पेरतो.

| तो बियाणे पेरतो

| Tō biyāṇē pēratō

| he seeds sows

| Subject Object Verb|style4= font-variant: small-caps;

| He sows seeds.}}

Nepali:

{{fs interlinear|indent=2

|top= म किताब पढ्छु ।

| म किताब पढ्छु

| ma kitāb paḍhchhu

| I book read.{{gcl|PRES|simple present}}

| Subject Object Verb|style4= font-variant: small-caps;

| I read a book.}}

Odia:

{{fs interlinear|indent=2

|top= ମୁଁ ଏକ ସେଓ ଖାଏ ।

| ମୁଁ ଏକ ସେଓ {ଖାଏ}

| mun eka seo {khaae}

| I an apple eat.{{gcl|PRES|simple present}}.M

| Subject {} Object Verb|style4= font-variant: small-caps;

| I eat an apple.}}

Urdu:

{{fs interlinear|indent=2

|top= {{nastaliq|میں نے اسے دیکھا۔}}

| {{nastaliq|میں}} {{nastaliq|نے}} {{nastaliq|اسے}} {{nastaliq|دیکھا}}

| main ne use dekha

| I ERG him/her saw

| Subject {} Object Verb|style4= font-variant: small-caps;

| I saw him/her.}}

This preference is not fixed in all Indo-Aryan languages. Punjabi, for instance, may be characterised as following a Subject—Object—Verb typology overall, but some flexibility is permitted, and this tendency does not follow in sentences involving personal pronouns. Examples are shown here in both Shahmukhi (top, right-to-left) and Gurmukhi (bottom, left-to-right). The word forms used reflect those typical of spoken language. For Shahmukhi, vocalised forms with vowel diacritics have been used to explicitly indicate the forms used; in typical writing these are omitted in most words where regular patterns allow this information to be inferred contextually.

The following sentence exhibits the typical SOV word order tendency. The verb phrase is in retrospective perfect participle form, indicating completion of the action, and takes on the feminine plural suffixes in agreement with the gender and number of the object. The subject here is a masculine plural form; in this context it does not require agreement from the verb.

{{fs interlinear|indent=2

|top= {{Uninastaliq|چاچے جپھّیاں دِتِّیاں گِیاں۔}} / ਚਾਚੇ ਜੱਫੀਆਂ ਦਿੱਤੀਆਂ ਗੀਆਂ।

| {{Uninastaliq|چاچے}} {{Uninastaliq|چپھّیاں}} {{Uninastaliq|دِتِّیاں گِیاں}}

| ਚਾਚੇ ਜੱਫੀਆਂ {ਦਿੱਤੀਆਂ ਗੀਆਂ}

| cāce japphīā̃ {dittīā̃ gīā̃}

| {Paternal uncles} hugs {given gone}

| Subject Object {Verb Phrase}|italics2=no|style4= font-variant: small-caps;

| The paternal uncles have given hugs.}}

By contrast, in the following sentence the person involved, referred to by a first-person pronoun, is the object rather than the subject. The significance of people as a semantic category takes precedent over the SOV word order tendency, and the person is typically first even in sentences where that person is the object. The pronoun "mainū̃" has the postposition "nū̃" agglutinated to it, approximately meaning "to." Abstract concepts like desires and emotions typically come "to" people as agentive subjects.

{{fs interlinear|indent=2

|top= {{Uninastaliq|مینُوں سیب چاہِیدا اے۔}} / ਮੈਨੂੰ ਸੇਬ ਚਾਹੀਦਾ ਏ।

| {{Uninastaliq|مینُوں}} {{Uninastaliq|سیب}} {{Uninastaliq|چاہِیدا}} {{Uninastaliq|اے}}

| ਮੈਨੂੰ ਸੇਬ ਚਾਹੀਦਾ ਏ

| mainū̃ seb {cāhīda} ae

| Me-to {apple} desiring exists

| Object Subject Verb Copula|italics2=no|style4= font-variant: small-caps;

| I want an apple.}}

The copula in Punjabi is extraverbal in function. While it can constitute the predicate of a sentence on its own, it does not enter the verb phrase when used alongside a full lexical verb. Instead, it acts as a marker of existence remote to or near to the situation. Some western dialects such as Pothohari have forms of the copula to indicate occurrence of a situation in the future.{{Cite Q|Q23831241}}

However, some Indo-Aryan languages exhibit V2 word order in combination with SOV, most prominently Kashmiri. The non-finite verb (infinitive or participle) remains in final position, but the finite (i.e. inflected) part of the verb appears in second position. Simple verbs look like SVO, whereas auxiliated verbs are discontinuous and adhere to this pattern:

{{fs interlinear|indent=2

|top= کور چہے ثونٹہ کہیوان

| کور چہے ثونٹہ کہیوان

| kuur chhi tsũũţh khyevaan

| girl is apples eating

| Subject Auxiliary Object Verb|style4= font-variant: small-caps;

| The girl is eating apples.}}

Given that Kashmiri is a V2 language, if the word tsũũţh 'apple' comes first then the subject kuur 'girl' must follow the auxiliary chhi 'is': tsũũţh chhi kuur khyevaan [Lit. "Apples is girl eating."]

Also, the word order changes depending on whether the phrase is in a main clause or in certain kinds of dependent clause. For instance, in relative clauses, the word order is SOVAux:

The Iranian languages almost uniformly exhibit SOV word order:

Kurdish (Kurmanji):

{{interlinear|indent=2

|top= Ez xwarin dixwim.

| Ez xwarin dixwim

| I food eat

| Subject Object Verb|style3= font-variant: small-caps;

| I eat food.}}

Kurdish (Sorani):

{{interlinear|indent=2

|top= .من خواردن دەخۆم

| من خواردن دەخۆم

| I food eat

| Subject Object Verb|style3= font-variant: small-caps;

| I eat food.}}

Ossetian:

{{fs interlinear|indent=2

|top= Алан чиныг кæсы.

| Алан чиныг кæсы

| Alan činyg kæsy

| Alan book reads

| Subject Object Verb|style4= font-variant: small-caps;

| Alan reads a book.}}

Pashto:

{{fs interlinear|indent=2

|top= {{nastaliq|زۀ کار کوم.}}

| {{nastaliq|زۀ}} {{nastaliq|کار}} {{nastaliq|کوم}}

| Zə kaar kawəm

| Subject Object Verb|style3= font-variant: small-caps;

| I do the work.}}

Persian:

{{fs interlinear|indent=2

|top= {{nastaliq|من سیب می‌خورم.}}

| {{nastaliq|من}} {{nastaliq|سیب}} {{nastaliq|می‌خورم}}

| man sib mikhoram

| I apple eat.1.PRES

| Subject Object Verb|style4= font-variant: small-caps;

| I am eating an apple.}}

Talysh:

{{interlinear|indent=2

|top= Merd kitob handedə.

| Merd kitob handedə

| Man book reading

| Subject Object Verb|style3= font-variant: small-caps;

| The man is reading a book.}}

The Zaza language usually uses a subject–object-verb structure,Ahmadi, S. (2020, December). Building a Corpus for the Zaza–Gorani Language Family. In Proceedings of the 7th Workshop on NLP for Similar Languages, Varieties and Dialects (pp. 70-78). but it sometimes uses subject-verb-object too.

{{interlinear|indent=2

|top= O ey kırışeno.

| O ey kırışeno

| He it carries

| Subject Object Verb|style3= font-variant: small-caps;

| He carries it.}}

{{main|Latin word order}}

Classical Latin was an inflected language and had a very flexible word order and sentence structure, but the most usual word order in formal prose was SOV.

{{interlinear|indent=2

|top= Servus puellam amat

| Servus puellam amat

| Slave.NOM girl.ACC loves

| Subject Object Verb|style3= font-variant: small-caps;

| The slave loves the girl.}}

Again, there are multiple valid translations (such as "a slave") that do not affect the overall analysis.

Although their common ancestor Latin had free word order and preferred SOV, the modern Romance languages lost the Latin declension that enabled free word order and in general require subject-verb-object structures. However, remnants of SOV remain, particularly the clitic object pronouns common in Romance grammar. For instance, in French:

{{interlinear|indent=2

|top= Nous les avons.

| Nous les-avons.

| We them/those-have

| Subject Object-Verb|style3= font-variant: small-caps;

| We have those/them}}

And Portuguese:

{{interlinear|indent=2

|top= Todos aqui te amam.

| Todos aqui te amam

| Everybody here you.{{gcl|PRCL|proclitic}} love

| Subject {} Object Verb|style3= font-variant: small-caps;

| Everybody here loves you.}}

{{interlinear|indent=2

|top= Aquilo me entristeceu.

| Aquilo me entristeceu

| It/that me.{{gcl|PRCL|proclitic}} saddened

| Subject Object Verb|style3= font-variant: small-caps;

| It saddened me.}}

And in Spanish:

{{interlinear|indent=2

|top= Yo lo como

| Yo lo como

| I it eat

| Subject Object Verb|style3= font-variant: small-caps;

| I eat it}}

Contrast this with the SVO structure of a sentence with an explicit object (again in Spanish):

{{interlinear|indent=2

|top= Yo como tortillas

| Yo como tortillas

| I eat tortillas

| Subject Verb Object |style3= font-variant: small-caps;

| I eat tortillas}}

The SOV tendency can also be seen when using auxiliary verbs, e.g. in Italian:

{{interlinear|indent=2

|top= Io lo sto mangiando

| Io lo sto mangiando

| I it am eating

| Subject Object Auxiliary Verb|style3= font-variant: small-caps;

| I am eating it}}

SOV also appears in Portuguese using a temporal adverb, optionally with the negative:

{{interlinear|indent=2

|top= Nós já [não] os temos.

| Nós já [não] os temos

| We already [not] them.MASC have

| Subject {} {} Object Verb|style3= font-variant: small-caps;

| (Positive) We already have them.
(Negative) We do not have them anymore.}}

{{interlinear|indent=2

|top= Nós ainda [não] os temos.

| Nós ainda [não] os temos

| We still [not] them.MASC have

| Subject {} {} Object Verb|style3= font-variant: small-caps;

| (Positive) We still have them.
(Negative) We do not have them yet.}}

And in a suffix construction for the future and conditional tenses:

{{interlinear|indent=2

|top= Eu fá-lo-ei amanhã.

| Eu fá-lo-ei amanhã

| I do-it-will tomorrow

| Subject Object Verb|style3= font-variant: small-caps;

| I will do it tomorrow.}}

SVO form: {{Lang|pt|Eu hei-de fazê-lo amanhã}} or {{Lang|pt|eu farei o mesmo amanhã}}

The basic principle in Japanese word order is that modifiers come before what they modify. For example, in the sentence "{{lang|ja|こんな夢を見た。}}" (Konna yume o mita),{{Cite book |last=Sōseki |first=Natsume |title-link=Ten Nights of Dreams |date=July 26, 1988 |publisher=Chikuma Shobō |isbn=4-480-02170-1 |language=ja |script-title=ja:夢十夜 |trans-title=Ten Nights of Dreams |author-link=Natsume Sōseki |orig-date=First published July 25, 1908 |via=Aozora Bunko}} the direct object "こんな夢" (this sort of dream) modifies the verb "見た" (saw, or in this case had). Beyond this, the order of the elements in a sentence is relatively free. However, because the topic/subject is typically found in sentence-initial position and the verb is typically in sentence-final position, Japanese is considered an SOV language.{{cite book |last1=Makino |first1=Seiichi |last2=Tsutsui |first2=Michio |date=March 1999 |orig-date=First published March 1986 |title=A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar |publisher=The Japan Times, Ltd. |page=16 |isbn=4-7890-0454-6}}

{{fs interlinear|indent=2

|top= {{lang|ja|ジョンは台所で本を読みました。}}{{cite thesis |last=Futagi |first=Yoko |date=October 2004 |title=Japanese Focus Particles at the Syntax-Semantics Interface |type=PhD |publisher=Rutgers University–New Brunswick |url=https://ling.rutgers.edu/images/dissertations/futagi_thesis.pdf |access-date=2021-08-01 |oclc=60853899 |page=23}}

| {{lang|ja|ジョン}} {{lang|ja|は}} {{lang|ja|台所}} {{lang|ja|で}} {{lang|ja|本}} {{lang|ja|を}} {{lang|ja|読み}} {{lang|ja|ました。}}

| Jon wa daidokoro de hon o yomi mashita| John TOP kitchen LOC book ACC read {POL.PAST}

| Subject {} {} {} Object {} Verb {}|style4= font-variant: small-caps;

| John read a book in the kitchen.}}

A closely related quality of the language is that it is broadly head-final.{{cite conference |url=https://web.stanford.edu/group/cslipublications/cslipublications/HPSG/2004/siegel-bender.pdf |title=Head-Initial Constructions in Japanese |last1=Siegel |first1=Melanie |last2=Bender |first2=Emily M. |date=2004 |pages=244–260 |book-title=Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar, Center for Computational Linguistics, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven |editor-last=Müller |editor-first=Stefan |publication-place=Stanford, CA |publisher=CSLI Publications }}

{{fs interlinear|indent=2

|top= {{lang|ko|내가 상자를 연다.}}

| {{lang|ko|내}}–{{lang|ko|가}} {{lang|ko|상자}}–{{lang|ko|를}} {{lang|ko|열}}–{{lang|ko|ㄴ}}–{{lang|ko|다.}}

| Nae-ga sangja-reul yeonda.

| I-{{gcl|SBJ|subject}} box-{{gcl|OBJ|object}} open-PRES-IND

| Subject Object Verb|style4= font-variant: small-caps;

| I open the box.}}

–{{lang|ko|가}}/–{{lang|ko|이}} -ga/-i is a particle that indicates the subject. –{{lang|ko|를}}/–{{lang|ko|을}} -(r)eul is a particle that indicates the object.

{{lang|ko|나}} na "I" is changed to {{lang|ko|내}}– nae- before –{{lang|ko|가}} -ga, and the verb stem {{lang|ko|열}}– yeol- is changed to {{lang|ko|여}}– yeo- before –{{lang|ko|ㄴ다}} -nda.

{{fs interlinear|indent=2

|top={{MongolUnicode|ᠪᠢ|lang=mn}} {{MongolUnicode|ᠨᠣᠮ|lang=mn}}{{MongolUnicode|ᠤᠩᠰᠢᠪᠠ|lang=mn}}

| {Би ном уншив.} {} {}

| Би ном уншив

| Bi nom unshiv

| I {a book} read

| Subject Object Verb|style4= font-variant: small-caps;

| I read a book.}}

Quechuan languages have standard SOV word order. The following example is from Bolivian Quechua.

{{interlinear|indent=2

|top= Ñuqaqa papata mikhurqani.

| Ñuqa-qa papa-ta mikhu-rqa-ni

| I-TOP potato-ACC eat-PAST-1SG

| Subject Object Verb|style3= font-variant: small-caps;

| I ate potatoes.}}

SOV is believed to have been the "default" order of the protolanguage of the Sino-Tibetan family. Most Sino-Tibetan languages exhibit SOV order; however, the largest sub-branch of the family, the Sinitic or Chinese languages, are uniformly SVO, with some SOV-derived features.

Burmese is an analytic language.

{{fs interlinear|indent=2|italics3=yes|glossing4=yes

|top= {{lang|my|ငါကရေသန့်ဘူးကိုဖွင့်တယ်။}}

| ငါ က ရေသန့်ဘူး ကို ဖွင့် တယ်

| ŋà ɡa̰ {seʔkù bú} ɡò pʰwìɴ dè

| nga ga. {se'ku bu:} gou hpwin. de

| I SUBJ {water bottle} OBJ open PRES

| Subject {} Object {} Verb {}|style5= font-variant: small-caps;

| I open the water bottle.}}

Generally, Chinese varieties all feature SVO word order. However, especially in Standard Mandarin, SOV is tolerated as well. There is even a special particle 把 (bǎ) used to form an SOV sentence.{{cite web |title=Understanding 把 (bǎ) in ten minutes |url=https://www.chineseboost.com/grammar/ba-ten-minutes/ |website=ChineseBoost.com |date=28 February 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220121201738/https://www.chineseboost.com/grammar/ba-ten-minutes/ |archive-date=2022-01-21}}

The following example that uses 把 is controversially labelled as SOV. 把 may be interpreted as a verb, meaning "to hold". However, it does not mean to hold something literally or physically. Rather, the object is held figuratively, and then another verb is acted on the object.{{citation needed|date=May 2019}}

SOV structure is widely used in railway contact in order to clarify the objective of the order.{{Citation |url=https://wenku.baidu.com/view/832c1d110b4e767f5acfce6d.html |language=zh |mode=cs1 |via=Baidu |script-title=zh:车机联控语言——铁路行车领域"共同语言"的研究 |url-status=live |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20201218131615/https://wenku.baidu.com/view/832c1d110b4e767f5acfce6d.html |archivedate=2020-12-18}}

{{fs interlinear|indent=2

|top= 我把蘋果吃了.

| 我 把 蘋果 吃了.

| Wǒ bǎ píngguǒ chīle.

| I {sign for moving object before the verb} apple ate

| Subject Sign Object Verb|style4= font-variant: small-caps;

| I ate the apple. (The apple we were talking about earlier)}}

{{fs interlinear|indent=2

|top= ꯑꯩ ꯐꯨꯠꯕꯣꯜ ꯁꯥꯅꯩ꯫

| ꯑꯩ ꯐꯨꯠꯕꯣꯜ ꯁꯥꯅꯩ

| Ei football sanei

| I football play

| Subject Object Verb|style4= font-variant: small-caps;

| I play football.}}

{{fs interlinear|indent=2

|top= ꉢꌧꅪꋠ.

| ꉢ ꌧꅪ ꋠ

| nga syp-hni zze.

| I {(an) apple} {(to) eat}

| Subject Object Verb|style4= font-variant: small-caps;

| I eat an apple.}}

The Tungusic languages exhibit SOV word order by default.

{{fs interlinear|indent=2

|top= Бэе бэеткэнмэ ичэрэн.

| Бэе бэеткэнмэ ичэрэн.| Beje bejetkenme ičeren|man boy-ACC see-NFUT-3SG| Subject Object Verb|style4= font-variant: small-caps;

| The man saw the boy.}}

The Turkic languages all exhibit flexibility in word order, so any order is possible. However, the SOV order is the "default" one that does not connote particular emphasis on any part of the sentence; alternate orders are possible, but are used for emphasis. For instance, in Turkish, the following is the "default" way of saying "Murat ate the apple":

{{interlinear|indent=2

|top= Murat elmayı yedi.

| Murat elmayı yedi

| Murat apple ate

| Subject Object Verb|style3= font-variant: small-caps;

| Murat ate the apple.}}

However, this sentence could also be constructed as OSV (Elmayı Murat yedi.), OVS (Elmayı yedi Murat.), VSO (Yedi Murat elmayı.), VOS (Yedi elmayı Murat.), or SVO (Murat yedi elmayı.), to indicate the relative importance of the subject, object, or the verb.

Similarly, in Uzbek this SOV sentence is neutral:

{{interlinear|indent=2

|top= Anvar Xivaga ketdi.

| Anvar Xivaga ketdi.

| Anvar.NOM {to Khiva.DAT} went

| Subject Object Verb|style3= font-variant: small-caps;

| Anvar went to Khiva.}}

(The marker "ga" is a dative case marker for the object that precedes it.)

But the sentence can be changed into OSV as well ("Xivaga Anvar ketdi") to change the emphasis ("It was Anvar who went to Khiva").

The same holds in Kazakh, where the below is neutral:

{{fs interlinear|indent=2

|top= Дастан кітап оқыды.

| Дастан кітап оқыды

| Dastan kitap oqıdı

| Dastan {book} {read-PST}

| Subject Object Verb|style4= font-variant: small-caps;

| Dastan read a book.}}

But an OSV sentence (кітапты Дастан оқыды; it was Dastan who read the book) can be used to change the emphasis.

Other examples of SOV sentences in Turkic:

Azerbaijani:

{{interlinear|indent=2

|top= Ümid ağac əkəcək.

| Ümid ağac əkəcək

| Umid tree {plant-FUT}

| Subject Object Verb|style3= font-variant: small-caps;

| Umid will plant a tree.}}

Kyrgyz:

{{fs interlinear|indent=2

|top= Биз алма жедик.

| Биз алма жедик

| Biz alma jedik

| We apple {eat-PST-1PL}

| Subject Object Verb|style4= font-variant: small-caps;

| We ate an apple.}}

The "idealized" profile of the Uralic languages has subject-verb-object word order. However, some Uralic languages, including the most widely spoken (Hungarian) prefer SOV.

The protolanguage of the Uralic language family is understood to have exhibited SOV order.{{Cite book |title=The Oxford guide to the Uralic languages |date=2022 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-876766-4 |editor-last=Bakró-Nagy |editor-first=Marianne |series=Oxford guides to the world's languages |location=Oxford |quote=As regards constituent order, Proto-Uralic was most obviously an SOV language with postpositions. |editor-last2=Laakso |editor-first2=Johanna |editor-last3=Skribnik |editor-first3=Elena K.}}Janhunen, Juha. 1982. On the structure of Proto-Uralic. Finno-Ugrische Forschungen 44. 23–42. Cited in Katalin É. Kiss. 2023. The (non-)finiteness of subordination correlates with basic word order: Evidence from Uralic.

Hungarian word order is free, although the meaning slightly changes. Almost all permutations of the following sample are valid, but with stress on different parts of the meaning.

{{interlinear|indent=2

|top= Pista kenyeret szeletel.

| Pista kenyeret szeletel

| Pista bread slices

| Subject Object Verb|style3= font-variant: small-caps;

| Pista slices bread.}}

{{interlinear|indent=2

|top= Manne gajpem åastam.

| Manne gajpem åastam

| I {hat.ACC} {buy.1SG}

| Subject Object Verb|style3= font-variant: small-caps;

| I buy the hat.}}

{{fs interlinear|indent=2

|top= Мoн книгa лыӟӥcькo.

| Мoн книгa лыӟӥськo

| Mon kńiga lydźiśko

| I {a book} {to read}

| Subject Object Verb|style4= font-variant: small-caps;

| I am reading a book.}}

{{interlinear|indent=2

|top= Hama na mo ŋwa.

| Hama na mo ŋwa

| Hama {{gcl|COMP|completed aspect}} rice eat

| Subject {} Object Verb|style3= font-variant: small-caps;

| Hama ate rice.}}

• Topic-prominent language
• Subject–verb–object
• Object–subject–verb
• Object–verb–subject
• Verb–object–subject
• Verb–subject–object
• :Category:Subject–object–verb languages

{{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Subject-object-verb}}

Category:Word order