MODIFICATION AND WORD ORDER

UNIT 09: MODIFICATION AND WORD ORDER

UNIT 09: MODIFICATION AND WORD ORDER

Modification 

A. Adverbs modify adjective, adverbs, and verbs.

He is an extremely rapid thinker. (NOT extreme rapid )

She walks elegantly. (NOT walks elegant )

It grows extremely slowly. (NOT extreme slowly)

Cf. That sounds interesting. (NOT sounds interestingly)

B. Adjectives modify nouns.

No more Canadian products are available here. (NOT Canada products)

Word Order 

A. Enough comes after adjectives/adverbs and before nouns.

He is old enough to see that movie. (NOT enough old)

We have enough books on this topic. (NOT books enough)

B. Words ending in -thing, -body, -one, -where come before their adjectival modifiers.

I have something nice. (NOT nice something )

I have gone somewhere new. (NOT new somewhere)

C. Subject-verb inversion 

Question involve inversion between subject and verb, but indirect questions involve no such inversion.

I asked him how long he had been in America.

(NOT how long had he been )

When the sentence begin with a negative word, the subject comes after an auxiliary verb.

Rarely does he work at night. (NOT Rarely he works)

Not until yesterday did he change his mind.