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Wikipedia tells us that the order should be place–manner–time. However, this webpage tells that it should be manner–Place–Time. Which one is correct?

I have one sentence in two different orders:

  • No child should grow up in poverty in America in the 21st century.
  • No child should grow up in America in poverty in the 21st century.
Laurel
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Yousui
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    I do not think this is a rigid rule. Adverbs and adverbial phrases can often be moved around; and a sentence with a lot of them reads better when they are clustered together at the end. So, for example, I should write: "In the 21st century no child in America should grow up in poverty". –  Sep 16 '12 at 18:31
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    I think both sentences read badly, and that in a bad sentence the order of things is unimportant. Answers to The Royal Order of Adverbs suggest a few rewriting methods. – James Waldby - jwpat7 Sep 16 '12 at 18:56
  • My English master said "Time-Manner-Place" and most sentences read well in that order. Some don't, though. Carlo's version is best. – Andrew Leach Sep 16 '12 at 19:20
  • @jwpat7: what do you think of "In the 21st century no child in America should grow up in poverty". Does this construction sound more natural for a native speaker? –  Sep 16 '12 at 19:21
  • Carlo, I too consider your version is the best. Thanks. – Yousui Sep 16 '12 at 19:33
  • This is a duplicate of a question you already asked that has been closed; the closed question had been considered a duplicate of the link above, The Royal Order of Adverbs. – Souta Sep 16 '12 at 19:44
  • @Carlo_R., I think that of the suggested forms, what you suggested is best. I am still bothered by the “no child in America should grow up” part of “no child in America should grow up in poverty”, although logically there really is no entailment. – James Waldby - jwpat7 Sep 16 '12 at 20:43
  • I think what makes the sentences awkward is not the adverbial order, but the repetition of in...in...in. You could get rid of one of the ins this way, perhaps: "in 21st century America". Even keeping the ins, moving some to the front can alleviate the awkwardness: "In America in the 21st century, no child should grow up in poverty." The "in poverty" belongs more closely with "grow up" than the other two "in" phrases. The point is that a child should not grow up in poverty...not that a child should not grow up in America or should not grow up in the 21st century. – Kyralessa May 09 '17 at 12:11
  • The link given "englisch-hilfen" confuses adverbs and adverbial phrases (of place, ...) – Quidam Nov 04 '19 at 03:58

3 Answers3

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In British English the standard word order for adverbs in end-position is manner-place-time(easy to remember as the initial letters are in alphabetical order m-p-t). However, to avoid too many adverbs in end-position and for emphasis I would suggest to put the adverb of time in front-position. This sounds much more fluent - although I must admit I'm German myself ;)

Michael
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    Minor observation "I would suggest putting the adverb" is correct. To my ears "I would suggest to put" sounds wrong and jarring. Not what the OP asked, but a useful note. In general non-native speakers seem to use infinitives too much. – Francis Davey Dec 23 '14 at 20:40
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Although 2 years have passed since your question, I have just found in a grammar book of mine that the right order is Manner-Place-Time. If the verb of the sentence is a verb of motion then the order changes to : Place-Manner-Time. For instance, "he goes to his office by bus at nine o'clock."

konstantina
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    Welcome to EL&U. If you are new to StackExchange, I strongly encourage you to take the site tour and to review the help cener. Your answer would be improved by indicating, at a minimum, which grammar book, with an excerpt, as it has already been demonstrated that both orders are in use. – choster May 09 '15 at 18:20
  • Yes, mentioning the book would be really interesting. But the already demonstrated things are not relevant. Another book can say other things, and it's the interesting part. – Quidam Nov 04 '19 at 04:04
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Adverbs of time do go last, something both your references agree on. For adverbs of place and manner, I believe there is not a general order that is usually followed in English. Consider this Google Ngram showing that stay at home alone beats stay alone at home, but not overwhelmingly. So this example weakly supports the place, manner order.

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On the other hand, stay late at work beats stay at work late, but again not overwhelmingly. This is weak evidence for manner, place.

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For the OP's question, my opinion is that "in poverty" should come first, because for this example, it is a more important adverbial clause than "in America".

Peter Shor
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