Word Order is Important

English is relatively uninflected, so where the words are in a sentence makes a big difference. One rule is to put the verb as close as you can to the subject. Here’s and example of not doing this:

What??? The murder goes to auction?

You need two sentences here:

Rare ‘Ides of March’ dagger coin goes to auction. The coin was minted by Brutus after Julius Caesar’s murder. Make sure your writing is not easily misunderstood.

Here’s a picture of the coin:

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Here’s the sentence, from a guy I read regularly:

This isn’t about Suzi, but her predecessor, Vaska, a Rhodesian ridgeback who was very good on leash but would nearly tear my arm from its socket if he spotted the letter carrier, who he knew carried doggy cookies.

Toward the end: “who he [the dog] knew carried doggie cookies.”

Shouldn’t that be “whom” before “he knew”? He knew him, right?

Nope!

The rule is you go from the inside out. The dog knew he carried doggie cookies. “Who” is the subject of the subordiante clause, “who carried doggie cookies,” and he is the subject of the main clause, “he knew.”

Tricky tricky. Don’t let the word order fool you!

Here’s a slightly related comic from that essay because I like to have pictures in my posts.

I’ve mentioned “only” several times in the past (go use the search box to the right). Putting an adverb at the end of a sentence can make the adverb’s antecedent tricky to chose.

“Tired of taking things seriously” does not mean the same thing as “seriously tired of taking things.” I recommend you put your midifiers as close as you can to what they modify.

I usually pontificate about “only” being too far from what it refers to (Look up “only” in the search box on the upper right). But here’s an example with “just.” Always put these words right next to what they refer to.

In case you don’t get the joke, she’s not talking about getting her hair done, but about how recently the hair was done, and she wants the hairdo to last longer than a week.

See? Word order makes a difference.

This is an example of a misplaced modifier. Modifiers should go as close to what they modify as you can put them.

The leaves are not for parties and weddings, the confetti is for parties and weddings, so “for parties and weddings” should come right after “confetti.” Okay, maybe this is a really minor solecism, but hey, I’m a curmudgeon. Harrumpf!